new work at morpeth gallery

ISBP installment no. 18: Rebecca Crowell

Rebecca Crowell gives a glimpse, inside and out, of her rural Wisconsin studio, as well as her work, which was inspired by her residency in Catalonia. See more on her website and blog.

Rebecca writes:
My studio is in a separate building behind the house, on 40 acres in west-central Wisconsin, a beautiful natural setting. I like the fact that I have to leave the house to go to the studio, as it always feels like moving into a different world. The building is a simple metal outbuilding with a foot of insulation in the walls, and part of the south-facing wall is made of cinder block to provide some solar gain. It is a large, utilitarian space that I have occupied for over 20 years, and inside it's quite messy and chaotic, with paint on the floors, walls, and other surfaces, and piles of stuff that are far from neat or organized.

In my house I keep reasonable order and cleanliness, so I sometimes wonder why the studio mess doesn't bother me. But being neat is not what comes naturally, and I guess for me it is a matter of where to put my energy. Nothing about the studio space is pristine or precious, which allows me to relax and focus on the work and feel free to muck around. And I rather enjoy the studio clutter--the accumulated stuff, piles of old paintings, sketchbooks, art books, journals, tools, materials, rocks and shells, and forgotten, half-finished work. The whole place feels intensely mine, full of my personal history, my art history--yet not in an oppressive way, it's just there in the background when I paint.

In the photo is the large wall on which I do most of my oil painting, hanging the panels up with push pins or small nails. There are always a lot of panels in various states of completion leaning around. I also have another wall that is cleaner, where I can view finished pieces with less visual distraction. My painting table is elevated to a comfortable height so I don't have to bend over it--a great relief for my back--and I have a couch by the wood stove, a table and counter area for doing mixed media work, and an air-to air heat exchanger for ventilation. About a year ago I got some excellent daylight fixtures, and there are high, north windows too. So it is a very functional space. Just outside my door is a rock garden set into a steep bank (the studio is at the bottom of a small hill, accessed by stairs) and that is a beautiful, secluded spot to sit in warmer weather.

Remembering Catalunya
74 x 30 oil on board

interactive studio blog project installment no. 17: kate beck

I have tremendous respect for Kate and her work. I've learned much from her wonderful blog and how she speaks about her process.

Untitled Graphite on Arches Printmaking Paper
42 x 72, 2009 © Kate Beck 2009

My words:

We moved into a new house last year and I consequently moved my studio, as well. I now live and work “… in a field, on a beach, on a pile of rocks in the Atlantic...”. We’re building it out, so it’s a challenge to be working in the same space I’m renovating, but it's coming along. All together, it is about 950 sq. ft., the entire bottom level of the house, which opens up into the field, looking out to sea. Quiet, and nice. The largest space is for painting, and I have a room for drawing – the clean room – and another for storage. The light is mostly artificial but the studio faces south and I do get natural light for drawing, especially. I’ve never had a studio in my living space before but it is working out well.

My drawings and paintings are created as an intuitive response to materials placed within a given space: graphite on paper, paint on substrate, objects within a room. I consider them as objects, concrete elements of structure. I believe white to be the most inherently beautiful color as it carries with it the potential to simultaneously expose and negate space. I believe black to be the most innately powerful color as it is defined by the presence of light as well as by the absence of light.

The mind’s natural inclination is to identify a problem and work it out, a process of thinking and re-thinking. My aesthetic is founded in formal principles and methodologies of drawing, which I consider the most visual equivalent to thought.

I named my house and my studio White Spot.

Kate Beck

isbp installment no. 16: diane mcgregor

Diane McGregor gives us a look at her New Mexico studio and work. I am especially impressed that Diane's studio looks this clean even when she's working in it. Oh yeah, and I really like her work. 

Diane writes:

Attached in a photo of a corner of my studio with some finished paintings on the walls and one in progress on the easel. This is pretty much how my studio looks all the time -- I didn't clean it up or anything. I'm a fairly tidy painter. I have fantastic light (although not northern light), from south, east and west windows. This studio is the largest room in my house, what would have been the master bedroom, but it is quickly getting very cramped and I'm considering renting a studio in town, if I can stand the commute. (I live outside of Santa Fe in a little farming village, and it's about a half-hour drive into town).

Rising   2009

oil on canvas    40x40 

isbp installment no. 15: lisa pressman

Lisa Pressman, who lives and works in West Orange, NJ,  and I met--once, for about 5 minutes--at the opening reception for Material Color at the Hunterdon Art Museum last October, but we've kept in touch via the magic of the web. I love her thoughts about her studio to the work. Not gibberish at all, Lisa!

Lisa writes:

I actually took this photo a while ago as I was finishing up some work; I wasn't happy with it (the studio looked so clean or composed). But looking at it now I was struck by how the image begins to "read" like one of my paintings. 

In the foreground you have the red heat gun shape with the graphic red line of the wire that then leads to the touches of red on the table in the mid ground and then to the fire extinguisher red and then to the touch of the red in that canvas in the way back. and so on and so forth- with colors, shapes, lines, stops and starts of bundles of energy (the brushes, the scrambled papers,the repeating rectangles, etc.). The eye meanders through to read the story.

I may be speaking gibberish with only my first cup of coffee, but seems so clear to me this morning: the studio is the bridge from the unconscious and conscious to the work.

I Know That 1 & 2   2009    encaustic on panel     each 24 x 24 

Interactive Studio Blog Project Installment No. 14: Marco Paltrinieri

Marco Paltrinieri lives in London, but is native to Italy. When he's not working on his psychology dissertation, Marco is focused on photography, and just had an exhibit in Italy.

Marco writes:

I'm a photographer. Or even better, I'm a psychologist who loves to play with photography. 

In the last two years I have lived in 3 different flat so I've got nothing more than a sort of "portable" studio. All I need are my laptop and my notebooks, a few drawings to hang up on the wall and a small collection of found objects. Leaves, stones, shells, each object represents an exact moment in time, a personal and intimate memory that I decided to hide from the camera's eye...

Untitled  C Print 

from the series "Borders and Gates of 66 Poplar Court"

...Gerhard Richter says that images are "unachievable" and are to be doubted. I do agree. That's why I love photography. It gives me the opportunity to explore the space existing between reality and the mind, between certainty and confusion. A space where the meaning of reality is constantly challenged, negotiated and redefined.

A TECH REQUEST

Greetings:

I have recently switched from pc to mac, and I'm experiencing a bit of a learning curve when it comes to blogging, particularly uploading photos to the blog. I've done a bit of looking around to see what others recommend for photos/images. Many mention Ecto, but I've not been able to download it successfully. So...I'm asking readers to comment on solutions that work for you when it comes to uploading photos and images onto your Blogger blog. Thanks in advance!