Studios

 I don't think there is any place more important to a painter than their studio. My first studio was in the old closed in porch at my first house. I was eight years old. I did a lot of drawing and painting with tempera and watercolor paints. The ones in the tin box with the brush. I believe the brand was Prang. I set up card tables around the room and held classes for the neighborhood kids. My fee was a candy bar.

 We studied horses and flowers. We would go out in the yard and bring in flowers, limbs and acorns to practice with, and I had several horse books for reference materials. It wasn't far different than the classes I taught more recently the exception that I actually know how to draw and paint now. I believe that was the beginning of my life long career in art and my amateur role as a naturalist. My relationship to my studios is an important part of my life as a painter. 

Country painters love their studios…..