Artists Studios Online Tour and Giveaways - A Blog Carnival

Go Behind the Studio Door and see where real artists work!

Today a group of painters are inviting you in, to visit their studios and see where the action takes place. If you are an artist, you may even get some good ideas from seeing other painters' studios. Some artists have giveaways or special prices. Check them out:

Marla Laubisch	Carol Schiff	Kaethe Bealer	Jo MacKenzie
Michael Chamberlain	Charleen Martin	Sally Binard	Jacklyn Karabaich
Sharon Graves	Sea Dean	Johnna Schelling	Taryn Day
Julie Ford Oliver	Sarah Sedwick	Kim Rempel	Cindy Michaud
Joanne Grant	Carmen Beecher	Cindy Williams	Cathy Engberg

My Studio:

I painted a floorcloth to protect the carpet

I happily paint in this room, which has plenty of north light. My husband built the taboret on which I set my iPad.  I paint from photos on the iPad while listening to music on Pandora Radio. Shelves are mounted on the walls and I let my daily paintings dry there before varnishing.

I looked at this photo and decided it was time to remove some of the containers taking up space on my palette.

After paintings are varnished they move into this room, an extension of my studio. My husband built the map cabinet, and the frame and painting storage next to it. On the map cabinet is the entry Cindy Michaud and I built for the online Mystery Build Contest. It's Moby Dick, and the whole scene is spilling out of a book.

This is where I do my packing and shipping. Underneath is storage for small paintings.

So many paintings, so little time...

Carmen Beecher

Creek Flowers, 6x6 Oil on Canvas Board

Robert Genn wrote in his blog PainterKeys.com about challenging students to paint a landscape in either 37 minutes or 37 strokes. I tried both, and above is the one I painted in 37 minutes. This was a fantastic exercise for loosening up, thinking more simply, and as the master Qiang Huang says, painting mindfully. I am pleased with the result.  

PURCHASE

Below is the one I first painted in 37 strokes, and that just didn't work. That is very few strokes; the trees used up 14 strokes. When I finished it looked like a first-grader did it, so I went on and noodled around with it a bit until it resembled something. It is the same scene I painted in my previous post dated June 19, with a lot more strokes. Next time I try this I'll make it a simpler landscape. I'm not thrilled with this one, but I'm not giving up. It's also good practice for painting greens, and who doesn't need that?

Hobbitat, 9x12 Oil Painting

I call this Hobbitat because it looks like Hobbits would live there. It is a cool, lush forest and that road leads to some interesting places. No Hobbit sightings, though. Yet.

PURCHASE

Green Forest, 5X7 Oil on Board

Greens can be so difficult to get right. This was a cool forest with bright meadows, and is the preliminary to a larger painting of the same area.

PURCHASE 

Red Rock Crossing, 10x10 Oil on Canvas

This is Cathedral Rock again. After we went in the right direction to look for good views, we found this scene, and I hung out over the river to get this shot. A few minutes later we found THE view that is photographed more than any other rock formation in Arizona (see my post on May 29th titled "Cathedral Rock"). Today's painting is smaller, but that did not make it any easier to paint. There is a lot going on there, and I even eliminated the swimmers I saw braving the icy waters.

PURCHASE

Sedona Sunset, 5x7 Oil on Canvas

I just paint what I see, and this is what I saw. I told you it wouldn't look real. A lot of things around Sedona don't look real, yet there they are.

PURCHASE

Spring Wave, 6x6 Oil on Canvas

Back to a tiny painting. This is painted for the Oklahoma Tornado Fundraiser, at auction on DailyPaintworks.com. This is a brief dip in the ocean, before I return to Sedona with one of those sunsets that don't look real. Check out the fundraiser, you might see something you'd like and contribute to the tornado victims at the same  time.

BID