Fall Cleaning

Fall Cleaning!

It is Friday and my lesson to myself is to be organized.  Yes, organized -- well, sort of organized.  It is time to clean out my studio, and even more importantly, my paints and old brushes that I have been hanging on to.

I throw away more paint than most people use -- I have a large glass palette and I like to use a lot of different colors -- and, I usually add a new color just for the fun of it.

When I am painting, I don’t like to take time out to put more paint on the palette, so when I run out of a color, I tend to throw the tubes (without the caps on) on top of my palette - I am in a hurry and I am painting -- I certainly don’t have time to stop and put the cap on the paint and put it back into the drawer -- so I throw them on the corner of my palette.  And when the pile gets too high, I throw them in boxes.  When I am creating, I can't stop and organize!!!  I am in the moment and want to stay there!!!

If you do not have a tube wringer -- run out and get one -- get the metal ones as they will last forever.  This saves you a lot of money on paints.  And when they get down to the very bottom of the tube, I cut the bottom off and squeeze the daylights out of the rest of the tube!  This is similar to what Wayne Dyer does to his family’s toothpaste -- he talks about squeezing out every last drop!

And, thus, there are lots of remnants of paint tubes that have been sitting around in my studio, which when I clean my palette, I throw in  boxes!  These are great paints, some are very expensive, and some are not.  Needless to say, I am not throwing them out!   Sooooo -- I have decided that I have to use up all of these paints before I purchase any more colors -- except for the cadmium yellows and reds!

Now, just in case you don’t think that I am organized -- well, in some ways I am.  I keep my paints stored in bins and marked with colors.  I usually buy my paints in bulk; however, this past year, I have only been buying them a few tubes at a time at the local art store, Arizona Art.

And, although these drawers, which are directly under my palette, presently look messy -- they are actually color-catagorized -- and I will be cleaning them up too!  Yikes -- looks like there is some major cleaning happening here!

This is indeed a challenge for me -- an economical challenge -- and a painter’s challenge.  You can email me your ideas -- mine is to pull several tubes out of the boxes each day and put them on my palette and use them -- I have already started and have found some colors that are magnificent to use and mix with my other colors.  

Let’s see how this translates into my paintings -- I am sure that this challenge will be fun and with the money that I save not buying more paints, well, I guess a good bottle of wine will do!

The challenge is on!

Next week, I am going to clean my garage!

DianeLeonard.com

Diane@DianeLeonard.com