In My Studio - A Journey to Discover

"In My Studio" ©Mary Montague Sikes

This Covid-19 experience has brought me more time in my artist studio. I sometimes call my special retreat, "Angel View Studio", because the most important view I have there is through the three overhead skylights. There are clouds during the day and stars at night unless they are blurred out by the nearby street light. The art studio view is quiet different from the dozens of trees and the creek and marshland I see from my writing studio window. I am thankful for the views I have from both studios.

Besides the many cold wax paintings I have in various stages of finish, I also have five acrylic paintings underway. Acrylics are a special love of mine. I often enjoy making a pastel painting first, then using it as my working drawing for a larger, much showier piece of art work. Right now, I have the intense Robert Doak watercolors at the ready to use on Yupo. So much to do while I have this unusual opportunity of not going out for meetings and for Wellness classes.

"Studio, Street View" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Eventually, I will need to spend time inside my studio closet where many treasures are secured. I enjoy the forgotten surprises I sometimes find hidden there. An archival storage box for work on paper holds figurative watercolors and a treasure trove of pastel drawings. At one time, I planned to write a second hotels book--More Hotels to Remember--and the paintings for it lie hidden in a drawer. The research for the stories for my book fill bags and filing cabinets in my writing studio. Where did I ever think I would find the time to put all that work together?

"Studio Closet" ©Mary Montague Sikes

Being in my studio is magic. So much to discover. So much to create in my fantasy journey to Xanadu.

There's Something About Being with "Creatives"

Mary Ann Beckwith talks about art ©Mary Montague Sikes

I just returned from a week-long visit to Boone NC where I spent five days with nine other "creatives" in Mary Ann Beckwith's experimental painting class. Since I first met Mary Ann in 2005, I have loved her. The atmosphere around her overflows with excitement and positive energy. I listened to her and watched her painting demos, and I just wanted to paint, paint, paint. Sadly, Beckwith plans to retire from teaching workshops and concentrate on her own work. This was her next to last workshop. The last one will be in October 2017 in Austin TX.

Being with other "creatives" in this class was special. I didn't feel the jealousy or competition that sometimes develops in art workshop classes. Instead, there was high energy focus that led me to new ideas and thoughts about making and finishing art. Much of Mary Ann's direction is toward developing design in paintings.

I remembered my early painting classes with Thomas Thorne at the College of William and Mary. He talked about design in artwork then, but it didn't make the impression on me that it should have. I was too enthralled by the intense color of my newly-discovered tubes of acrylic paint to care about anything else. I wanted to be a colorist. I had started out with oil paints that dulled with my overuse of turpentine. I didn't like the smell or the slow drying of the oil materials. Acrylics cleaned with soap and water. I loved them.

Now Mary Ann has taught me to like watercolor paints, especially those manufactured by Robert Doak in his studio in Brooklyn NY. I first painted with those intense watercolors 11 years ago and have been excited by them every since. Because both watercolors and acrylics are water media, I can mix them.

I hated to come home and leave the wonderful intense atmosphere of Mary Ann's workshop at Cheap Joe's in Boone. But I am inspired and thankful for the opportunity to have been with other "creatives". There is just something about them...

Workshop Class at Cheap Joe's ©Mary Montague Sikes