The magazine The Artist in it’s July issue

(http://www.painters-online.co.uk/magazines/issue.asp?issue=125)

has published an article by my husband, Mike on his experience of building a studio for me in our garden.  You can see a summary and pictures of the article in my first Blog.  It’s now been nine months since the studio was completed and I’ve been working steadily in it ever since.  During that time the temperature has fluctuated during the winter from -5C to a summer high of +26C which for the West of Scotland is unusally high.

I have an electric heater which has been perfectly adequate for the cold winter months and in the summer, with the door open or closed, it’s been comfortably cool to work in.  The two main windows are north facing and the side window and window in the door are shaded from direct sunlight by the balcony roof overhang.  I did think I would need blinds for the strong summer sunlight, but so far I haven’t found it necessary which is great, because the blinds could have greatly reduced the light.

When we first decided to build the studio we thought a good size would be 3m x 3m, however I am very pleased we chose the larger 3m x 4m size as this has enabled me to have shelving on one wall for my collection of props, books and other bits and pieces.  It’s also made it possible to paint from life without being too close to the objects.

I’ve found having my own studio and designated painting space a really liberating experience, as I can leave things set up and not worry about having to tidy everything away at the end of each day.  It’s a special place with a very relaxing atmosphere and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

Aileen

When I’ve chosen the subject for a painting and stretched my watercolour paper I then select most of the tubes of paint I think will work for both the subject and which ones will go well together.

Not all of the colours I’ll use in the painting are chosen at the start, however, and I’ll quite often wait until I’ve laid down some paint then place scraps of coloured paper against what I’ve already painted until I find a colour I like that suits what’s already there. I either find the required colour in a tube, or I’ll usually be able to mix two colours to get an accurate match.

I would rarely mix more than two colours together to make a third as I think this can result in muddy pigment and dull mixes of paint. The exception to this would be if I wanted a dark solid area in the picture.

Because I like to have a large selection of paints to choose from, I don’t have specific favourites I stick to and I like to pick and choose at random for each painting. This week I’ve been using Purple Madder, Rose Madder Genuine, Indigo, Cadmium Yellow Pale and Pthalo Green in my painting of Fritillaria.

It’s very interesting and sometimes a great shock to see the result of mixing colours I haven’t fully experimented with. When it comes to choosing paints I’m not one for staying within my comfort zone and am very happy to experiment with new colours. I don’t like always using the same colours with predictable outcomes and would far rather take a risk which makes each painting a fascinating adventure for me.

Aileen