getting ready for my residency

preparing for an at-home art retreat

As mentioned in a previous post, I am designating August as a residency month for me: a chance to switch off from business and illustration and birdwatching logbooks. An opportunity to just enjoy making art, but giving myself some direction and challenges so that I don’t feel overwhelmed by the literal and metaphorical blank canvas that will be in front of me.

I’ve been noting down ideas that pique my interest, either subject matter or medium, and are putting together a to-do list so I have a daily focus, which I doubt I will stick to but it does mean that I won’t have the option to procrastinate, and there’s nothing like saying I need to do a particular thing to make me come up with something else I’d rather do…

One thing I have committed to explore is working at a much bigger scale, but much as I love my cosy and delightful attic room, I realised I simply don’t have the room to spread out. So, I now have an easel which I can use for my A1 sketchpad.

I’ve never had a proper easel, only kinda crappy aluminium ones, and although this is a folding field easel, it’s a really nice Italian brand. It can take the paper landscape, portrait, or flat.

I now need to go through my art materials so I can think about what to use on such a big surface as gouache isn’t going to work so well on this scale!