Archived Comments
Enjoy the past comments below for Your easel, your altar…
“Ordo ab chao.” We all have our work environments to our liking but God, Robert, I don’t see how you work in such clutter. Your easel is nice and functional but I can’t imagine such a tiny palette. Do you work through several per painting or just one of this size? That begs the question do you mix your pigments on the canvas because I see very little space to do so on your palette? I know you work in acrylics but I doubt you use straight pigment out of the tube? Amazing ….
His studio may be messy but his paintings are neat. Maybe there’s something psychological going on here.
Today you bring us ideas both interesting and inspiring. Your easel is a wonder of simplicity, especially the holes for the support pegs. A simple, yet sturdy battlefield for bringing order from chaos. I see a lot of spilled blood from the battle in the red marks below the painting! Thank you for this letter.
Easels aren’t the only special made things. forty-five years ago I made my watercolor pallet out of white acrylic sheet because nobody made one with wells large enough for a two inch brush. Actually, there are not any yet that really fill the bill, though some have tried. Mine is 15 x 18 overall with 15 wells. Most of these have held the same pigments for the entire life of the pallet. There are also nine mixing areas, the largest three are 5 x 5. Two of the nine are reserved for special pigments that are not normally used, but needed for some special treatment in a particular painting.
Lawlor is a genius and for you to apply his perspectives of Sacred Space to the Easel, Art Studio is brilliant. Sacrifice is a key word…art bridges us to the spiritual world and the lofty beings respond. Hildegard von Bingen noted this in the 12th century.
I completely agree with the sanctuary of the space.
I had never thought about it in those terms, being a plein air painter, but my easel has a special place in my heart. It is treated with respect, never loaned out, inspected for maintenance, travels a lot and is praised in each workshop for carrying my supplies and my inspiration that comes forth from the magic tubes! With all that said I believe, it’s time to give ‘her’ a name.
I love to receive you mailings for the insight and tips but there are times when you make inappropriate comments. This recent letter you mentioned the easel as an altar to be worshiped at respect the gods of quality, etc. As a Christian I find that disturbing because the first command God gave us is to worship Him and not have other gods. I would appreciate it if you could be more careful of some of your comments.
All the letters are good, but this is one to print out and read every day.
This truth can also be said for the photographer who transforms images into works of art. The photographer’s easel is a computer monitor.
Thank you again for your continued support and inspiration. I am surely feeling that not only is my easel my altar, but every breath I take. Especially in Italy! I’m thinking of you and Sara while I’m in this country we love!!
The typeface you use in your letters is such that the eye-mind can see words rather than with sans serif, where we see letters and then get the word from that. This extra step is why we fall asleep while reading emails and body copy on websites etc.. Keep doing what you do as you do it because you are visually communicating efficiently. It makes it easy for me to read and get your concepts which also deal with the visual.
The easel is an important part of the whole process of painting. It is an invaluable material as paints, pencils and others when the canvas is set up on the easel gives the artist a better perspective of the whole picture. It also provides a good place to dry the work. I think it should be given the proper attention as the painting.
Your letter today makes me understand why I have to wash my hands before I start to write or watercolor, as well as have the apartment in order, paints clean and ready to go, the atmosphere calm and quiet, me too! I can only write/paint in moments of quiet and calm – which I do manage to find often enough! But I agree, our arts are sacred, as are the tools we use to make them.
One of the things that’s really fun about these live comments is the occasional, very occasional, really stupid things people write to you. I look for them and cherish them. Somehow, it makes my day to know that there are really stupid people out there.
I want to thank you for writing the wonderful emails I receive. Although you gear them specifically to artists with brushes, I find them equally inspirational to read before I go into my studio to weave or sew, in designing and creating something beautiful to wear or admire. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Ballwin, Missouri, USA
Thank you for the wonderful mention in “Your easel, your altar”. I greatly appreciate it and the valuable work you are doing with your letter.
Loved your beautiful homage to that Sacred of the Sacred, the artist’s studio and his easel! Netherlands
My easels serve two purposes. One holds the painting while it dries each layer, so that I can contemplate it at length or in short intervals when the moment allows. The other is for the actual production where I sit or stand struggling to make paint become the thought or feeling or object of my attention at the time. It gives me peace, calm, and understanding of nature. It permits me to focus entirely on one thing instead of spreading myself over many. When compared to the work of others, my efforts are at about kindergarten stage but I still hope to one day produce something worth admiring if I live long enough to learn how to make such a painting come alive. Art keeps me humble.
Thanks for your continued good articles. This one peaked my interest. I have long held my art spaces and easel as a sacred space. When I enter this Temenos I try to do so as a child in awe of the wonderful and profound ‘play’ time awaiting me. To approach one’s blank canvas or paper as to an oracle is to put out one’s best energies as well as trusting in one’s highest intuitions. Whatever comes out of it is a gift even if it is a “doggy” gift. Art is not only product well crafted , but process to evolve with. Some newer work ,in the works, are incorporating a 20 year fascination of mine with fractals. It might be my new religion. Organic patterns in nature, infinitely complex and aesthetically pleasing.
I have been receiving your letters for years but this is the first time I have felt the need to respond. I totally agree with your letter Your Easel, Your Alter. I feel as artists we are the luckiest people in the world to have the ability to be totally lost in our art. To be able to be at our easel and have the ability to put everything else out of our mind except what we are currently working on is a wonderful gift. Keep those letters coming, I have sent them to everyone I know.
Thank you for adding where the workshop was/is being held. That sure helps us ground bound folks who just wish we could be there.
I have a serious anthropological/archeological interest in alters and shrines. Theories abound in my head and naturally work their way into my paintings. I have come to think of my studio as a field site and my work is a big dig into, well, what comes up after all that digging. The easels (I use two according to the way the light changes through the day) are certainly central to the process. It might also help that I work on a dirt floor–my studio is a filled in indoor swimming pool (12 dumptruck loads to fill it). I move from the shallow to the deep end all day. Thanks for your column and for all the responses.
I don’t know about Robert and his method of madness, but as an acrylic painting most of my color mixing is straight out of the tube and on the canvas. I have found for years that this is the best way to keep a match of values concise.
Sun Iris acrylic painting, 90 x 78 inches by Darney Willis, AR, USA |
Your monochromatic work is excellent, but the overlay of copyright material spoils it for viewers.