New studio

It's been a long time coming, but I finally etched out a permanent place for my art supplies and creative space. Thanks to an early Christmas present from my husband, I was able to set up and get to work on some new experimental pieces today.

 New art desk

I've had my eye on an art table for a while, and similar designs to the one above, normally retail for around the $200 mark, on sale! This one came up at ALDI recently, for $99. My husband searched all the stores in town, only to discover they were sold out. But his final attempt at a rural ALDI store however, saw him buying the absolutely last one! I feel incredibly fortunate.

Not so fortunate, putting it together, however - as I had to drill larger holes for some of the screws. My patience paid off in the end, when I finally got to sit at my new pivoting, glass table.

Old but still useful

The rest of the furniture however, are all cheap finds from days gone by. This is an old wireless stero. Its tall enough to hold my easel (another free find) and shares the same space with a lamp, for those overcast days like today. The lamp was also a gift from a relative. I might do something more with the wireless stereo, given that its empty, but for now it will do, as is.

Not my painting on top

I'm not sure what they call these desks - mail desks, postman's desks or something, but it was a second-hand find, for under $10. I can put the more vulnerable art supplies up top, and close the door, so they're safely out of reach of our toddler. I'm sharing this room with some of my husband's book collection, and collectable toys from his youth. While it may be a shared space, there's still plenty of room for me!

We had to do some room changes recently, when our toddler needed his own bedroom. I have wanted an area I can drag my art supplies out to work on, without taking over the eating areas in the house. So it was a great day, to finally get my watercolour paints out, and do some experimenting.

 Sunflower

I tried wet on wet techniques, with cheap, dry, watercolours pots, and quickly discovered they didn't disperse in the water properly. My watercolour pencils do a better job. So these cheap pots, are best used on dry paper only. I wanted to demonstrate this piece to show how ineffective they are with wet on wet. Because even when they touched the water, the pigment didn't want to bleed out and merge the colours, so I got a very stippled effect like using acrylics.

Bouquet in pot

So I got out some tube watercolour paints instead. They were given to me a long time ago, by a person who had no use for them any more. They were surprisingly, still in good working order! My inspiration came from an art tutorial, by Andrew Geeson, with wet on wet, watercolour techniques.

If you do a google search, you will find some free demonstrations on youtube, by Andrew Geeson. I watched the tutorial yesterday, and did my best to recall the steps - but I know I've left out techniques, like negative painting to highlight different areas. I wanted to go easy today however, and just have fun with it.

Loose, cherry blossom

I loved the effects of the flowers so much, I was inspired to experiment with a cherry blossom branch, next. I didn't have any reference picture, so it wasn't complicated. I like the delicate effect however, which didn't require too much concentration. When you haven't been doing art for a while, its best to ease yourself back into it - especially when using a new medium.

I've used watercolour pencils before, but watercolour paints are more fluid and an entirely different medium to control. So this is all new to me.

Still thoughts

My final piece was based on my Geisha, but wasn't intended to be one. I used my original sketch as inspiration, but let the watercolour paints decide what form she took. I sketched with the brush and used only two colours - changing the tone of the blue, by adding more or less water.

It's quite a subtle piece, which my scanner did its best to replicate, but looks more washed out than it actually is. I like it, because the soft colours and simple pallet, give it a calming effect.

I have to say, a lot of this was done, thanks to my husband's persistence at hunting down a table, and many free art supplies, given to me over the years. Even the watercolour paper I used today, was gifted to me, by the same artist. They decided to concentrate on different mediums, so gave the watercolour supplies to someone who would use them. I've kept them for years, but finally braved the wet on wet, techniques, for the first time today.

I had heaps of fun too!