Where I Live

Talented artist Seth Apter is doing a studio 'show and tell' on his blog, The Altered Page.  He wants people to see what a real working studio looks like on any given day.  I love this idea and wanted to join the party.

Here is the studio where I live:
My studio is in the basement of my house.  You enter through the garage.  I painted this wall with chalkboard paint 2 days ago.  I need to wait one more day before I can season it and write on it.  I'm so excited to do this!!

The bench is an old apothecary bench that was in my grandfather's and then my father's pharmacy.  I spent lots of time sitting on this bench as a kid, hanging at my Dad's store.  It fits perfectly here. Enter through the little green door....

Here is the view!  Overwhelming huh?  Right now it is in a transition stage.  I'm transitioning from summer (where I can just paint till my heart's content) to fall (where I need to get serious and start teaching classes again).  I've spent this week organizing and purging. It may not look that way, but trust me!  I love the tables and chairs I have in here.  I can move everything around into all kinds of configurations.

I know it looks like a lot of 'stuff' and there is!  I teach in many different venues, so organization is key!

Immediately to your right I have drying racks and all kinds of storage for supplies.

This is one of my bookshelves filled mostly with books about artists.  I use them to teach my Great Artists unit at a pre-school and also for inspiration.  I love teaching pre-schoolers about art.  I've been doing it for 13 years now.  In the bottom left hand corner of the photo you can see my flat files.  On top of my flat files I have my laptop, printer and a bunch of junk that I need to go through.  Mostly papers I've gotten in the mail that I felt I needed to keep for one reason or another.  The wall is filled with original art from artists whose work I admire.

This little bookshelf, built by my brother, is tucked in a corner.  It stores all the picture books I use to teach an enrichment class at the pre-school.  The illustrations in them astound me!  I love picture books. I could look at them for hours and sometimes, I do!

This is my little corner.  I have everything within arms reach. Currently, I'm tossing things there that need to be filed.   Behind my chair are storage bins filled with paints, sorted by color.  To the right of my chair are all my pens, markers and colored pencils I use in journaling.  To the left are my brushes, pencils and ephemera used in my mixed media work.  You can see the edge of one of my 3 easels in the left hand side of the photo.

I also have these great pull out drawers that are filled with all kinds of supplies.  I mean really, who needs this much tape?  I do get supplies donated, which I have a hard time saying 'NO' to.

There is also a flat screen TV mounted on the wall, another storage area for reference books and magazines and a powder room.

This little girl comes down to keep me company on most days.  She is a good companion.


Thanks for taking this brief tour of my studio.  In closing I'd just like to share a piece I picked up this summer in Newport...

art trips with mrs pom

i am so fortunate to have found a friend, an art friend, who lives close by.  loretta aka mrs pom is that friend for me.  when neither of us is bogged down with work or family or school, we grab the chance to go on little art excursions.  in the past 2 weeks we have had 2 outings!  

first was our labor day trip into the city.  destination: the bowery.  we left early in the morning so we could go to a special coffee shop.  to our disappointment, it was closed! on labor day! imagine? so we settled for this:

the neighborhood around bond street is lovely.  you see this

and the most amazing building - the george frankel theatre.

 outstanding gardens with birds

and lovely piles of rock!

and much to our chagrin, john derian was closed! not because of labor day, but it's closed on mondays!! i was so disappointed. guess i'll be making another trip to bond street.

but dick blick was open, so some damage was done there.  i was so busy shopping i didn't take any pics.  trust me, art supplies were purchased and have already been put to use.

next on the agenda was a class with mixed media artist, seth apter. i had never met seth before, and am so happy i finally did!  he is an amazing teacher and so nice to boot!  

 it was held at litttle bird creations studio owned and run by michele luxenberg whom has a lovely little walk up studio on the west side. 

my partner in crime, loretta

my gorgeous friend betti, who catered dinner for loretta and i (xo)

  the class was titled, text tiles, a play on words.  we created on small pieces on cradled wood.  it consisted of layer upon layer of acrylic paint, manipulating each layer to create amazing texture.  

step one - basecoat

a few steps in - layers upon layers of luscious color and texture

seth demonstrating with gesso how to emboss and deboss

about 7 or 8 layers in

text added to make a statement

and photo opps...michele and seth

BZ with her finished piece.

it was a fun friday night outing! just what this girl needed!  thanks all my art friends, i couldn't survive without you!!!