When you have visited a painting studio, have you ever noticed how we artists tend to re-purpose everyday household items? Problem solvers by nature, most of us are prone to being creative with items that are usually found in a kitchen, bathroom, garage or wood shop.
Recently our household needed to replace our dishwasher. As I closed it for the last time, I kept asking myself, “Are there parts in there that I could use some how?” Sure enough, the utensil basket caught my eye. Since it is self-standing, I thought, “Couldn’t this hold my brushes?” My current arrangement of miss-matchy cans and jars was less than ideal.
I even liked the sections in the dishwasher utensil basket. (Go ahead, you can ask me why I have so many brushes.) For the smaller brushes I did need to put a piece of plastic in the bottom of that section so that the handles did not slip through.
This new brush holder takes up the same amount of space as my other containers on my painting stand, but the brushes are much easier to access. And it’s kind of cool, no?
I have also re-purposed a bathroom extension mirror. It works well when I want to look at my painting from a different angle or perspective. Mirrors are good to have in a studio because they makes us look at our painting with a little more objectivity when we are self-critiquing. Here you can see my painting on my easel which is on the other side of the room.
When I have the opportunity, I love perusing an IKEA store for items that I could use in my studio. Below you can see that I am using a magnetic strip and wire basket (designed for a kitchen) over my studio sink. I holds my large palette knives and other items nicely and works very well.
Then I purchased a metal strip, again at IKEA, and screwed it onto my easel. With magnets, I had easily attache reference sketches, etc.
What have you re-purpased lately in your studio? Or perhaps you have seen something that an artist has cleverly done in her studio. Please share it with us here. It’s always fun to see creativity in work spaces.
