Watercolor Still Life: Rieke’s Bowl

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Rieke’s Bowl 3×6 Watercolor Sold

I’ve been working on a large painting on the floor because it’s too big for my easel. It reminded me that I had a display board in my apartment a few decades ago, mounted to the wall in the living room, and it was terrific to pin or tape large sheets of paper – for charcoal drawings, pastels & watercolors, etc. The ability to have several pieces up at the same time, in process, had a big impact on how I looked at my work. Standing back to survey drawings & paintings from across the room, or from the adjacent kitchen was incredibly informative, and I could walk over and make adjustments on the fly. It was also helpful when trying to work in a series. See some examples in other artists’ studios below:

Alexi Duque’s studio
Andy Frost’s studio, with his pal Woody
Narangkar Glover’s studio

I didn’t know till recently that quilters use display walls to lay out patterns and colors for their quilts. The benefits are exactly the same as a painter’s – squinting to see values, checking the path of the eye through a color way, pattern or composition, etc.  They’re just using fabric instead of pigments.

Here’s a video (below) about using 2  4’x6′  $11 sheets of foam insulation to make a quilting display wall covered in flannel, so that fabric pieces stick and can be moved around.  (If you get this blog via email, the video can be seen here.) I’m thinking about making one for my studio with this same material, minus the flannel. What do you think? Have any of you made a display wall in your studio to work larger, and if so, what did you use as a support?


Art Quote
One of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.
Albert Einstein

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1 thought on “Watercolor Still Life: Rieke’s Bowl”

  1. Hi Belinda,
    You’ve been doing a lot of great watercolors lately.

    I have one of those fold flat easels and it is great for larger watercolors since I can lay it down flat to work, or any angle, but still stand it up for viewing.

    On the display board although I don’t use it to work on I use a 23″ x 34″ piece of sheet metal, with thin strips of wood behind to keep it rigid.
    I have two, one as my bulletin board and the other to put up drawing, thumbnails reference etc as I work.
    They are actually the side panels cannibalized from an old trash compactor appliance and spray painted a non reflective white

    Of course they are heavier than foam but the benefit is I don’t have to use tape or put pin holes in anything, especially drawings, instead I use magnets from Home Depot and painted them too.

    Keep painting…

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