Home studio facelift

For my birthday present this year, my dear sister gave me the gift of time. She assisted me with a very ambitious project - one that involved moving tons of ideas, stuff, furniture, artwork and more around and out of my home studio. We tackled 2 walls at a time over the course of a couple of days and the process was instantly gratifying! The original color I've lived with for a number of years had an overall grey feel - certainly uninspiring! Grey-ish beige was on one wall and the other 3 had a grey-ish green (the image to the left shows 'the before').

My cat, Gabe, supervised the process. He wasn't at all concerned about getting paint on his beautiful furry body.

 

The end result was one that we were both very happy with:  

 

I painted

and it felt sooooo good! This last month was spent on the frames (referenced previously) and I missed the smell of oil paint and bringing an image to life with my brush.

So I picked from my various paintings in progress and chose one I had started some time ago. I was inspired to paint large today and this fit the bill as it is an entire door (though the image itself is only on the lower 1/3-1/2). I'm eager to continue.....

The dining room is back to normal

as I finished the hand-finishing of the last frames my dad had created for me. The show opens at the Hudson Hospital this week, with the opening on May 20th. It feels good to be on this end of the process and I have to say it is also nice to have the dining room back for it's original purpose in life. Perfect timing all around, I must say as the bug of spring has bitten....

The painting above is called Butterfly Days, inspired by 'living in the moment'. The frame is one I had posted a couple of times already (one with my cat, Gabe, in it and the other in progress).

My heart goes a flutter....

not only for the Mad Hatter, but also for the complete Alice in Wonderland movie. I saw it twice this last week and was completely inspired by the world of it all. I would happily go along for the ride, if a ride was going to Wonderland. Tim Burton, the genius he is, outdid himself I'd say. Now I must reread the book.....

I've taken over the dining room....

This past month our dining room has become my frame finishing area. It's perfect with the natural light that comes through the windows and I enjoy having my furry friends around supervising. Gabe has made himself comfortable above left in frame #2 as George is in the background. Above right is the finished frame. (I know it can be distracting, the middle area of the frame.... Since it will be covered up by the painting, I didn't paint it in).