Kitchen as Studio (but not for food)

After not going to my oil painting class for two consecutive weeks, I decided it was awfully stupid of me to try and learn new skills and not have anyplace to practice, so it was time to improvise a place to paint. Mind you, I have off-white carpet in the rest of the house, which limits the options of where I can put this particular skill set to use. (Note to self: become a writer and you can use the table or any place stable enough to write.) Since I knew that last week the class was going to work on copying a master, I chose a painting I liked, by Koloman Moser if you want to know, and went to work. Actually, first I had to clean up the kitchen enough to use it for a painting space. It worked OK, though I couldn't really step back from the painting, or I would have needed to climb into the sink or open and clean out the refrigerator. The above is about the 2 hr mark or so. You can see the book I am working out propped open on the stove, and I don't see the image posted in the likely places online, so that is the best you are going to get, since I am tired.

One thing that I found serendipitously while at the art supply store this morning buying the paper palette, is what my brushes are resting on. In the section for Chinese calligraphy there were these ceramic brush holders, and I figured if they are good enough for calligraphy, then they are certainly good enough of painting, as I hadn't figured out what to do with all the brushes as I switched colors, but didn't want to clean the brush in case I went back to that color. It was quite handy and prevented a potential disaster.

While I prevented one potential disaster, I have another on my hands, which is where do I put an oil painting to dry. I untaped it from the board so I could touch up the corners, but oil paint doesn't dry overnight, so I have to find a place for this thing in the meantime. Currently it is taking up counter space, but tonight's dinner was a chicken burrito from the new Mexican food stand around the corner, so it isn't likely to pose a problem until I need the kitchen for something other than coffee.

Here is the finished (at least for now) product: