Well, it's been over two weeks since my first post, but I finally have time now to show some photos of my studio.
This is where I do most of my printing. I built this bottle jack press myself using Charles Morgan's excellent instructions, available here:
http://www.monoprints.com/info/resources/bottlejackpress.pdf The press is great for printing my small linocuts, and it's also helpful for flattening prints once they have dried. Additionally, I use it to squeeze out excess water when I make paper (more on that in a future post).
This is my collection of assorted Golden Fluid Acrylic paints, along with some miscellaneous acrylic mediums. Lately, I've been using these to do most of my paintings.
Here's a bit wider shot of the bookcase where I store a good bit of my art supplies. Somewhere there's a big pile of books that had to move to make way for all this stuff.
From left to right:
a can full of random piece of canvas and string (for collages?),
a couple containers of thumbtacks (you can never have too many, trust me),
a can with some permanent markers and the scissors I use to cut paper,
the vase that holds all my pencils and pens,
some more random cans,
and a small container of printing ink.
My ever-growing collection of art books, quasi-organized by topic. As you can see, many of them are too tall the sit correctly on the shelf. Perhaps I'll build a bigger shelf when I have the time (not any time soon).
That far left thing is my main storage cabinet, where I keep canvas, paper, painting panels, and finished works on paper. The bottom drawer also holds my pastels.
The thing in the middle is my drying rack that I built with my father's help. It's great for anything that needs to dry somewhat flat.
And on the right, of course, I have my easel. That disaster sitting on there is one of my acrylic paintings in progress. Emphasis on the
in progress part.
On top of the cabinet I just discussed, I keep my paintbrushes and some other artistic miscellany, including my paper towels, rags, water sprayer, and nitrile gloves.
Here's a shot of the area where I ink all my plates and blocks for printing. I built this excellent standing height work table with instructions found here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Work-Table/
The left window contains some more random cans and containers, but the right one has something I'm very proud of: a genuine hand-carved mask from Haiti.
It was given to me by a teacher of mine who received it from a friend who went there on a mission trip. The teacher was retiring and giving away a lot of her old stuff, and offered this mask to whoever wanted it. I'm glad I took it.
Sentimentality aside, it makes a very eclectic decoration.
Well, that's it for now. I've shown you the better part of my studio, and anything I've left out will be covered in future posts.
Hope you you enjoyed, and I'll return with more content in a week or so.
