My pop-up art studio

It's been over a week since I wrote my first blog post for this website. A lot has happened since then. I will probably detail more on my other Soar Purpose blog, as I want to keep this blog focussed on art.

I managed to do another painting, which someone in the USA suggested a creative name for: Sun Flutter. Inspired by photos I took of monarch butterflies visiting the sunflowers outside my window. 

This is just a pic from my phone, as I need to wait for the right lighting conditions outdoors to take photos for fine art prints and my business cards.

Sun Flutter by Xanthe Wyse

Sun Flutter is the first painting on this easel. I bought a smaller easel, as I am painting in very cramped conditions (a small desk in my bedroom). Also why I am mainly painting in smaller sizes.

After completing the painting, my paints go back into hobby boxes and other equipment goes away, to be able to use my desk as a home office. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of space for a dedicated painting area.

I don't even have very good lighting. Neither of the lights in my bedroom work and the landlord doesn't seem to be in a hurry to fix them. 

I bought an inexpensive LED bar light which clips to my easel. It has 3 light settings - warm, neutral and cool. I tend to use neutral but I could also check the painting with the other settings. I also use a standard desk lamp (warm bulb) and another small desk lamp (LED neutral to cool). I figure if a painting looks fine in poor lighting, it tends to look even more vibrant in good lighting. A lot of people have poor lighting in their homes where artwork goes, anyway, so if a painting does okay in poor lighting, it will likely look great in good lighting.

Unfortunately, I don't have space to film extended clips of when I paint. I have put some smaller videos recorded with my phone while painting with on social media (links to my social media in footer).

My big job today was putting away my art supplies, to get back my bedroom and home office area. This was with art equipment out. Dropsheet on the carpet, paints on the floor, easel on the desk, at least 2 lights, brushes out, a white porcelain plate for mixing paint on, glass jar, medium. The apron to protect my clothes from getting painted is draped over the chair.

This was after I put my art supplies away. My late Dad made the writing desk for me over 40 years ago. He also made the drawers (they're actually desk drawers but I've stacked them due to lack of space).

I would love to be able to have the space to have art supplies out all the time but unfortunately, I don't. 

It's a dreary, cold, rainy day today, so no chance of getting some pics of the most recent painting. I have already done tests with other paintings in different lighting conditions, including natural light and artificial light. The lighting is really important for the best possible results for prints.

I take my own photos for the art prints. As you can probably tell, a pic from the phone with artificial lighting isn't that great. All three pics on this blog post were with a low-spec smartphone.  I don't have the space for studio lighting and I would rather make the most of outdoors, in just the right conditions, with a good camera that takes sharp photos.

I will post more about that when I finally get a decent photo of the latest painting.

A few short videos on YouTube, painting Sun Flutter:
part 1 (early layers)
part 2 (details)
part 3 (completed)

'Sun Flutter' Fine Art Print

NZ$35.00

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