painting

i'm sort of getting ready to start another round of painting,
moving things around in the studio a bit
thinking about how i work and where i can put things so i can maybe work on two pieces concurrently.
in the midst of this i spilled milk on my cobalt palette, as well as on my cadmium palette-i was not happy about that at all
well ok now i have washed them bit all that pigment and mixed pigments wasted.....

and i am thinking that the floor in that area is going to need peroxide too...
anyway some of the thinking i've done is how to set up so i can reach supplies from either the easel or the drafting table.. or should i just locate gouache on one and transparent watercolors on the other?
i need more lighting there as well
up lights would be optimum, but i am thinking a light bar, with clamp-on lamps is probably what is going to happen.

i also am trying to see what direction i need to take my paintings in next....
i am thinking that gouache needs to continue to explore how light falls on subjects, and what it does to colors.... i was so shocked when i figured out the actual blue of shadows at one point- i have to keep reminding myself to paint what is really there, not what i think i see-
gouache on dark paper forces my brain to work one way *reserve the darks for shadows*
transparent watercolor on white paper is directly opposite, *reserve the whites for light*
switching back and forth is a trip! as they both demand that you think about what you're going to do, how you're going to do it, and when in the process certain things have to happen. like when you need to mask out an image as you are going to be doing stuff to the background..... then lifting that mask to work on your main image.
now some people think that should NOT be done, but i know that for me, whatever works, works.... cause see i have this finished image in my head i'm also working towards

and the transparent watercolors, i think i need to go back to telling stories with, as the paintings that i don't hate as much are the ones with a story-
i think i'm ok that the gouache is about how to see, and the other is about overseeing sort of
i also am thinking i need to do both...
i could also with the gouache do one subject over and over if i had to in different lighting and different limited palettes
until i learned what i am looking to learn --- maybe the answer is....same subject, one in transparent and one in gouache?

i think that's part of what you do...you ask 'what if.............' and then you do it to answer the question-no?
that's how i approached porcelain work..... 'what if i try this, would that give me a better finish? or do i need to modify that'

i wonder if there is a grant for studio expansion? there seem to be grants for EVERYTHING else...
me having a body of work at the end of a grant period is not a problem as i am prolific, but finding and writing a grant app may be a bit of a problem.

i do long to do etchings again, (and porcelain work) i loved the atmosphere of etching... that slight haze of ink not quite wiped off the plate- really i need a bigger studio and it needs to be on a slab to support a press -

i keep wondering what a studio would look like for the work i want to do and i think it should be round...... and i think that the perimeter would be where the work actually happens because of that being where the windows are... and the center of the circle is a good spot for a desk/table .....to read/plan projects, do research....... (mat/frame/package-order supplies)- and when i have down time, i think of how i would set it up....where would the storage go, where would the slop sink be......how about the drying racks, or the acid vats and vents....?

no wonder i am having trouble remembering what i ate for breakfast, with all this stuff swirling in my head.....

for now in the next foreseeable future, i have to just decide about the corn/gourd series..... continue the corn in transparent? or go onto gouache, and do the fall series ...and if i do that..... do i continue on the black or go onto the other colored grounds?
i have the other indian corn in transparent..... i could do both i suppose, corn in gouache AND corn in transparent
ohohoh, i would LOVE to do various heritage corns (the not white or yellow ones) THOSE i would do in transparent, and have them labeled with their names
i have a cob of oaxacan green corn- but it's not a complete one.... i would like to do a complete one, and i have a deep red dent corn.... plus a not filled in cob of what could be stained glass or candy corn.....
not quite enough to do what i was thinking of
*i have written to a few seeds banks to see if i can get growers to sell me heritage ears but no luck*
this, and the frog project will be on indefinite hold, due to lack of materials/models...
both of which i could really enjoy......so it's a shame but it is what it is and i'll make do

so there you go.... a sorta of 'state of the studio' address..... more or less?
and tomorrow it looks like i lay out the next chicken