My Redneck studio set up

I spent many years painting in a confined corner of what ever apartment or house I was renting at the time but now my wife and I are fortunate enough to own our little house by the lake so now I have room for a fairly nice studio. I love my studio space and would like to share it with you.

This is the living room/kitchen area in the downstairs of our little house and my studio is the loft up above.

This is the desk I built from used and discarded lumber from construction sites. It has our computer and paper business files. I set this easel next to the desk because I can pull up photos I've taken and downloaded and have my reference material easily accessible. I also build my own easels out of discarded material that I find. This particular easel is not adjustable but is perfect height for sitting in a chair to paint. You can see all the clutter on the desk. I'm like a mad scientist when it comes to creating art. At least that's what I tell my wife as an excuse for my mess. In case you didn't see her before, that's our cat (Bisquit), standing by the chair.

This is one of my favorite tools in the studio. It's an old rolling station for cleaning off tables in restaurants. I found it out by a dumpster next to a construction project I was working on at the time. I took it home and cleaned it up real good and now I have the perfect rolling work station for all my brushes and paint tubes. I love curb side finds like this. For a redneck like me, finding discarded stuff and re purposing it as something else is like hitting the lottery.

Over here in the dormer area of the studio I shoot instructional, oil painting videos to put on you tube. The nook area of the shed dormer is perfect for this. When we do a video, we hang a black curtain behind the easel on a shower rod and some hooks that I rigged across the ceiling area of the dormer to block the light from the window and keep the surrounding distractions of my busy studio out of the shot. I constructed this easel to stand up straight instead of angled for better video results and it is also adjustable so I can put my paintings at whatever height I desire. Again you can see all the reference material on the shelf I have at my disposal. You can never have too mush information about a subject you choose to paint. Wildlife is my main art focus, so I have to have a lot of information about the particular species of animal I'm working on.

Here are a few more of the easels I have constructed for teaching my art classes. My finished paintings sit on them when I'm not having classes. You can tell I paint a lot from all my art work leaning against the wall. Most artists could probably own a barn and still not have enough space for every thing they want to do. I'm learning to be satisfied with what the good Lord has given me at this time in my life and know that when I am ready he will provide me with the space and the provision I need. It's all about enjoying your artistic journey and knowing that there will always be more to learn. Hope you have enjoyed the tour through my studio.

Thanks,