June 23, 2024
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Hello everyone! I’m trying out something new—an idea I’ve been toying with for a while now. Here are my “Studio Notes”, a biweekly newsletter/journal of sorts. It’s a long one, so read this when you have time, a drink to enjoy, and maybe even a little snack!
Basically, my thoughts propelling this: I don’t like using Instagram as my main way of staying in touch with you guys. I feel too much at the mercy of the “algorithm”, and something that I spent hours on will get a fraction of the reach of some stupid little trend. So, I’m trying out something new. Studio Notes—something that I can spend as long as I want on, making it what I want, and sending it right to your guys’ inbox. No algorithm in sight! It’s also in my medium that I prefer—writing. Instagram favors videos over written content, and that has never quite sat right with me.
If you’re new here since I’ve been hosting the giveaway, welcome! I’m so glad you’re here! And if you aren’t new here, welcome back, and thank you everyone to your support. Now settle in as I talk through what’s up in my studio lately.
After three weeks traveling through Scandinavia, coming home and back to normalcy, it’s safe to say that there was an adjustment period. First of all, I was exhausted and getting over the 9-hour time difference, and secondly, I was struggling to get back into work amidst not being able to stop thinking of our travels.
I finally took a couple days, the first to completely declutter and clean my spaces, and the second to declutter and clear my headspace. I wrote out everything I needed to do in the next month, and divided the projects into tasks and assigned them to specific days. Needless to say, it was very much needed. After that, I was ready to dive back into my work!
I’ve decided that in order to hold myself accountable, both in terms of working every week day and putting enough hours in, but also that I don’t work too late or on the weekends, I’ve started clocking in and clocking out, aiming for 40 hours a week. I’m already over 40 hours this week, but it’ll be less than 50, so I’m calling that a success.
I start out in the mornings at my desk in my library, working on any admin or brainstorming tasks. This looks like anything from making changes to my website, editing and digitizing my artwork to prep for prints, making posts for Instagram, or even now writing out these studio notes!
After I get the tasks done I’d set for the day in my library, I take a couple-mile walk with my dog and listen to an art podcast (more on that below in the media section!) This always gets me excited and in the mood to get into my studio. Once we’re back, I eat lunch, make a coffee to go, and head down to my studio!
Every day looks different in my studio. Some days I’m spending hours on one really detailed section of a single painting, and others I’m throwing acrylic paint around and switching between six different canvases. But my typical studio session looks something like warming up and getting fluid with acrylic paints on more intuitive, abstract works. I’ll gradually make my way to smaller, more detailed movements, usually with oils. That’s usually where I settle and can spend hours on a single painting without noticing the time passing.
When I feel my creativity slow a bit and get a little tired, I clean up my studio, leave it how I want to find it the next day, and head up! I finish the day off with a little snack, back at my desk, and get any ideas/thoughts out onto paper, make some reflections, and think about what I want to do tomorrow.
As always, I’m adjusting constantly, but this routine is really working for me right now. I have many, many different projects going on at once, and balancing both the brainstorming, administration side of things with the creative, painting side every day is key!
Ok, it’s time to get gritty with the details. I feel my relationship is constantly shifting with oils and acrylics. Acrylics will always be my first love, my comfort material that I can come back to anytime. I learned to paint with acrylics, specifically heavy body. But for the last year or so I’ve been in love with soft body and fluid acrylics. I love seeing paint flow on canvas, and you’ve probably noticed many drips, splatters, and translucent layers in my recent works. All due to my new obsession with soft body acrylics. I’ve been using the more affordable Liquitex Basics line of fluid acrylics, which released recently and made me so incredibly excited.
My work flow lately has been to start a painting intuitively in acrylic, and discover within it a composition and subject matter that I develop and reveal. I usually switch over to oils to achieve colors and details that, while possible with acrylic, are just so much less painful to do with oils.
However, I think I’ve discovered the most perfect flow in my painting in progress, This Land’s Heartbreak. This painting is based of a poem that I wrote a couple years ago in college, inspired by the most beautiful and magical place in the world: Tracy Arm Fjord in Southeast Alaska. I’ve had the privilege of working on catamarans that tour this magnificent fjord, and I continually explore those experiences in my art. I am so in touch with the paint, the canvas, and my thoughts and feelings in this piece. There has only been one other painting that I’ve felt this way with (Self Portrait as a Landscape), but with This Land’s Heartbreak… it’s stronger than ever.
All this to say, I had an aha moment this week. I was debating when to make the switch over to oils in This Land’s Heartbreak. I usually do it when I have it more blocked in, with more details. But I didn’t want to cover the dynamic, beautiful messy paint strokes, drips, and splatters. So I just followed my intuition and jumped right in with the oils. And oh my god, it was unlike anything I’ve ever done. I worked loosely, blending in colors with oils, and in places that I loved with splatters and drips, I worked with a lot more liquin, which is transparent, and the layers of acrylic shone through the vibrancy of the oils. I think it was one of the most effortless, beautiful, perfect moments I’ve ever experienced while painting. So yeah, those are my current thoughts and processes with oils vs acrylics. Let’s just say, I am very in tune with the mediums I am currently using.
Thunder Mountain: a beautiful, incredible mountain I hiked up last summer, that I wanted to portray in this painting. This painting has… well, let’s say it hasn’t been as easy coming together as This Land’s Heartbreak has been. But I’ve read a lot about intuitive painting and how it’s necessary, in order to bring one to conclusion, you need to use reason. To look at your painting critically and see what is working, and what is not. Now down below, the first picture is what it looked like when just working intuitively. But something just wasn’t setting right with me. The composition was too symmetrical, and somehow didn’t feel accurate to the memory I had in my mind that I wanted to bring to life.
So, what did I do? I turned to my camera roll, scrolled back to when I took this hike last year, and looked closely at each picture. And then, nestled in the corner of a picture was my painting. A similar composition and structure, but it felt… right. So I went in with acrylics and adjusted the mountains, added in Mendenhall Glacier, and changed the hill in the foreground. And it just… clicked. I became excited to work on the painting again, and I could see how it will become a finished work I am proud of.
I’m always learning in my process. This was another one of those aha moments that I felt I wanted to share with you all.
Alright, quickfire of what I’m listening and reading to to find inspiration in my creative practice.
Half Life - Album by Wyatt Flores
Fathers and Sons - Album by Luke Combs
Art Juice - Podcast with Alice Sheridan and Louise Fletcher
The Laura Horn Art Podcast
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Laura Horn’s Art Blog - love getting back into reading blogs (inspired by her most recent podcast episode)
If you’ve read this whole thing, thank you so much! I’m experimenting with how I want to keep you all updated on my art, and I just love writing, so here we are. Feel free to email me or send me a DM on Instagram with your thoughts on this!
So… what’s next? Well, I’m working full speed on a mini-series of 3 paintings based on my travels in Scandinavia. I’m also crunching to finish This Land’s Heartbreak and Thunder Mountain in the next couple weeks. Because, in 3 weeks, I am leaving for Alaska for a couple months! So a LOT to get through before then. I am also working on a super exciting commission with a company in Juneau… more on that to come! But it’s a really incredible, exciting opportunity! So lots going on. Also just coming to terms with the fact that no matter how hard I try, I don’t like using Instagram for my art. It’s too much work for not enough return. And I don’t like seeing my art as “content”. I’ll still post paintings, but I’m hoping that through these studio notes I can accomplish all that Instagram was doing and more!
Thank you all so much for reading! Your support means so much to me. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your Sunday and a creative, beautiful week ahead!
