Studio

[Richard Monro]

A long time ago (2 years?) I said I would post pictures of my new studio. Well better late than never. I have not bothered to correct the perspective distortion in the following pictures. Limited distance to shoot with a 28 mm lens really causes parallax problems.

The room is 11x14 feet and the built in furniture was already existing when I bought the house. The ceiling height ranges form 14 to 10 feet. The walls were painted a very grayed green and a Wilsonart burled cherry floor was installed. The floor is so impervious that it can be cleaned with acetone without damage.

The first picture is of the west wall of the studio. A painting by a friend of mine (Domingo - yes just the one name) hangs to the left of a Hughes 4000 easel (a great easel as it is weight balanced. At a simple touch a painting can easily moved up or down or side to side as needed) The 56x30 painting on the easel is in the block in stage, but will be the subject of a WIP post in the near future. By the way Domingo has sold more than $1 million of his art in the last ten years all over the world. He turns out 5 to 7 of these abstracts a day. No tears please for us realistic artists!

Picture 2 is the northwest corner. I keep my color charts handy as I usually use just 6 colors plus white on my palette. This handy chart keeps my color mixing problems to a minimum.

Picture 3 is the north window and my color mixing/storage center. A fluorescent fixture with 4 color corrected tubes (CRI 98) provides supplemental light. The over head fan has four color corrected fluorescent bulbs in the attached light kit. This lighting combination keeps all shadows off of my canvas.

Picture 4 is my desk at a condition of neatness it rarely sees. A wonderful sound system run off of my computer lets me queue up a whole days worth of music. Sarah Brightman is playing in this shot.

[Richard Monro]

Picture 5 is the east wall cramped book case and yes that big thing in the picture is a drop down Murphy bed. It comes in handy when we have an overflow of company (which I try to prevent. Company puts a crimp in my studio time.)

Picture 6 shows the handy drop down table that is attached to the Murphy bed. It been a real blessing at times.

Pictures 7&8 are of the south wall closet that has been converted in to storage space for all sorts of camera and art supplies.

Hope you all enjoy the tour.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Richard,

You have a lovely studio space. I love the color of your wall and the amount of light you get in the room. That drop down table is awesome!

I could use one of those!

Thanks for inviting us to your workspace!

[Richard Monro]

Enzie,

Glad you like the studio. It is a comfort place for me and part of the reason for that is the color of the walls. I wanted a neutral gray to keep room color from influencing my color choices.

To start I chose a value 6 true gray , but found I didn't like living with a true neutral. I then added in a bit of green with a touch of yellow until both my wife and I were well pleased with the result. Dun Edwards Paints matched my sample and the result is as you see it.

Everyone seems to find the color soothing and the reflected light seems to be quite neutral.

[Richard Monro]

Enzie,

The studio has great light from the window. However, when I am painting, I find I prefer to put on all of the color corrected lights as well. This seems to eliminate the slight variation in color temperature that occurs in the morning and evening hours from the natural light.

[Richard Bingham]

Richard, that is a beautiful, well-planned, orderly studio! Thanks for sharing the look-see. Congratulations!

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Really nice and neat!

[Richard Monro]

Thanks for the nice comments, but lest I give a false impression, I must state for the record that this is the neatest that my studio has been in the last two years. Generally there is a little more clutter and my desk is usually a mess.