My former dining room is now the art studio | Andrea de Michaelis – Creating my own reality, one thought at a time

I decided to turn my former dining room into the art studio so I can keep my reading room intact. Yesterday I collected all my art supplies and put them in the center of the living room to see exactly what I had. There were drafting tables, oil paints, acrylics, brushes, palettes, knives, watercolors, watercolor paper, sketchbooks, canvas and stretcher sticks, desk easels, standing easels, pochade boxes, pencils, erasers, pastels soft, hard and oil, solvents. I thought if I had enough to take over a room, it made sense to have a dedicated paint studio. If I leave up paintings in progress, I’m more likely to take a few moments and work on them. Otherwise years can go by with them untouched because they’re packed neatly away in the closet. As I meditated on the idea of room placement, I reasoned that the dining area is the best place in the house to be. It’s near the sink and water, it’s got the best indoor and outdoor lighting, it’s in the middle of the action, so the chi is constantly flowing.

I knew I’d need several table surfaces and I’d need drawers or storage space so the supplies didn’t get out of hand. I moved all my teas and vitamins to inside the cabinet, and moved the convection oven onto a narrow table. I placed two tables side by side next to it. That gave me plenty of surface space, plus storage underneath. I moved in a bar stool and straightbacked chair. I set up 4 different size easels. I spread out my supplies in genres: current sketch books here, all the watercolors here, the acrylics here, the oils and pastels don’t need to stay out. I set up my brushes and applauded my brush cleaning discipline.

I took the opportunity to clean the floors, so everything looks and smells and feels new again. I’ve never had the art studio in the dining room, so that’s very exciting. When I get into painting mode, it makes me begin to look at objects differently, to take note of how the light plays on it, how many colors are really involved in that dab of “white.” One main thing painting does for me is it trains my eye to peel away a layer of the mundane world to reveal the enchantment underneath. When that happens, I can be in bliss painting the half eaten acorn or, for that matter, simply contemplating the half eaten acorn.

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