Heading to the country!
 

Things are changing in my life, we're moving to a log house in the country, an area with many artists and incredible beauty. I will have my own studio, with skylights and big windows. The studio windows look out on woods, with horses that are stabled on the property. I'm still pinching myself to see if I am dreaming. I may not be in much for the next few weeks and after the move, I'll be on a dial-up internet connection (yuck), but I wouldn't give up this oppurtunity for anything. So, doing cartwheels here in Wisconsin. :sunnysmil

Jean

#1 is the house
#2 is the kitchen looking into the studio area. It measures almost 30'X17' so I have room galore, vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, and light! Since it so big I will be sharing it with my husband , he gets about 10' on the end (heehee).

oh wow Jean!!!

Looks fantastic, good luck in the move, and I hope it isn't tooooooo stressful.

Carolyn.

When are you accepting visitors for your artist weekends?? ;) ;)

An artist retreat sounds good! We could probably fit 8 people comfortably, easels on the front porch, good food, beautiful woods and rolling hills.

Bring mosquito repellant until I can talk Tom into a bat house (bats eat lots of mosquitos)!

Carolyn, I will try to keep stress to the minimum, I just want to be out there yesterday. If you come to the US my door will be open. You can expect some downhome Wi living.

Pat, you can come anytime!

Jean

Congratulations Jean! It's just beautiful! Can't wait to see the after pictures when you get your studio set up.

Have a smooth move! ;)

~Carolyn

Hi Carolyn and all,

The big move is tomorrow, and at this point I look like road kill. But it will be worth it, my kitchen is already out there. Anyone who wants to help unload is welcome. Brats will be cooking, and lots of other goodies for all the kind people who are helping. ;)

I'll be offline till we get our crummy dial-up going, so I'll be back when I'm back!

Jean

It's simply too beautiful here! Today I watched eagles soaring in the sky above our house, they were low so I got a good view. Hummingbirds are outside my kitchen window; I have to get the feeder up. So far my studio is almost all set up, but I'm having a hard time staying inside to paint even if I am surrounded by windows.

Here is the view I get every day in the back yard (outside the studio).

And the second shot is after a major storm. The thunder rolls and echos down the valleys. The Gods are definitely bowling!

There is too much new art on the board to reply to right now, but I'll get to it. New people, and honors for so many, Wow!

Jean

ps, I am having a problem uploading pictures, I'll try again tommorow after checking this out. Dial-up sucks.

Sweet Inspiration!!

Welcome Home, Jean!!!

Hi Jean,
how about doing some small plein air

Hi Pat,

Yes, I'm definitely home. :sunnysmil

I finally have the studio set up, and am painting again. Still alot of unpacking to do, but it will get done as it's necessary. I love it here.

Hi Allan, I will be doing some plein air work here, I can't wait till fall! The trees will be outstanding. I was thinking of doing the same area in different seasons, probably the view to the pasture. I've started doing some photography to see how the light is in different areas of the house and outside. I'm posting one I took yesterday, I have blown out highlights but the figure turned out okay. The ptoblem is finding people to model, it's just me and all the animals right now. That will change soon.

I finally found a young woman who will pose nude for me. Now I can even promise privacy!

Here's my studio, it's so big that I decided to share it with my husband, so I get 75% and he gets to have the tv in front of the couch . I can live with that as I get the room all day, sports suck though!

Jean

ps. Again I'm having some problems uploading. I'll try the rest in a few minutes.

Second try.

For now the windows are serving as wall space for my paintings. These are all on panels so the light doesn't shine through. Later we'll put up picture rail for some of them; wall space is at a minimum here.

And last, if this is still working. This is Clea by the rocks. Her new pug puppy, Pendleton, is on the ground but out of this picture.

Jean

:thumbsup: How wonderful for you. This looks like a very warm, yet light filled space. Let me know how the skylight works for you. do you have blinds for it? I see some great paintings coming from this studio

Hi Pat,

The sun from the skylights is never in the area I paint, so I don't think they will be a problem. I'm already repainting Jux, everything is wrong now that I can see it. All my colors dance on the palette instead of looking flat. Before I had to get my nose up to the pigment to see whether it was raw umber or black. No problem now!

How do you like your new studio, is there a thread on it?

Jean

What a beautiful studio Jean, I wish I had half of that space.

Hi Jean, Congratulations on the new house and studio! I'm delighted for you and keep us postd as to how the spce is working for you. I'm betting that you will have some lighting issues if you want to paint your models from life there and I'm interested to learn how you'll solve them.

I admire all you artists who can paint with somebody else in the room (other than a model) on a regular basis. I doubt that I could do that.

I'm also glad to see the tattoed man painting is still in your studio, I'm a fan of this one, you know.

Jean,

This looks wonderful, congratulations!

Just one thing to be aware of...my last place was all warm honey pine walls like yours is here. It really does affect the way light looks as it bounces around. If you are aware of it though, it's easy enough to compensate.

Kim,

I've noticed the difference in the quality of the light and the honey tones it creates. I'm repainting "Jux", (the tattoo guy) and actually I'm seeing that the color is much more real now. Maybe the shades are filtering some of that gold out, as I work in a corner of windows. I've carried him around to other areas of the house and he looks much better in every room, including outside. I also compensate some with cool, daylight flourescent lights. I am having some problems as the light changes during the day though, so I'm going to have to do some problem solving.

Linda,

I decided that I can't photograph anyone in the sunroom due to the lack of any strong directional light, it comes from all directions! I'm going to make shades for the skylights, using "block out" fabric, so I can at least control what comes in from the ceiling. There are also many other rooms in the house that I could use. Everyone wants to be in the sunroom, but I also really like the living room which is all north light. So I'm considering moving in there. That way I can have my private space and a fireplace too. I'll post a phot of that room when I get the camera out again. I'm getting ready for my first art fair now, Aug 6th and 7th. "Jux" has to be almost done for this so I'm a little crazy.

Claudmir,

Yes, I love this space but hate sharing it. I may move to a different room because of the lighting and noise problems. My husband likes sports and that is very distracting!

Jean