art lab and some insights in my own little laboratory of painting out of the box

A friend took me down to Santa Monica to meet Melanie, the owner of the PaintLab. What a fabulous idea. You can come and look at the art on their walls, different styles, abstract, phantasy, watercolor, graffiti, surreal, realistic and more and each of the artist represented is teaching a class in his or her style. You can drop by and just use the place to paint on your own or you can drop into their classes for two hours and emerge yourself in your choose style.

I was actually introducing myself there to find out if I could teach there, but realized soon that because the classes are not ongoing one needs to teach in such a way that it leaves the students feeling accomplished within a two hour period. Which seems a bit difficult the way I usually work.

Which made me reflect about the way I paint now, and how it is so unpredictable. Not like when I used to do portraits where I would know the end result, now I never know what it will look like in the end. Which is exiting and explorative at the same time and I love it, but not something that would show results in two hours. I might even put a canvas aside and not look at it for a while and take another that inspires me. At the moment I work on four of them and non of them are looking close to completion…

While I was in Santa Monica, took the opportunity to get some more of those favorite brushes with acrylic handle. They can be left standing in the water without fuzzing about them falling apart or cleaning them every day. I keep them in two pots of water one light and one dark, and only change them infrequently. Yes, I am a lazy bud 🙂

I also work with a wet palette for the same reasons. The paint sits over a bed of wet tissue paper and has a tight lid, a spray bottle helps to keep the acrylic wet (a very important thing in dry LA). That way I still have access to the color mixes from the day before. When I clean it out I use the leftover paint to make “random undergrounds” as inspirations for my next paintings, that way I never have to start with a white canvas.
Oh, and I do paint “out of a box”, a wooden suitcase that is portable and moves from the table to the floor with ease, the back of it makes shelves for paint bottles etc. and the bottom holds the water containers and the brushes and a spray bottle. Voila!

From In the Studio

But the day wasn’t over yet, went to see the ocean, and it was worth while, a stunning sunset over the Santa Monica mountains…