Organize Your Studio Workstation

Organize Your Studio Workstation
I'm fortunate to have a dedicated studio space in my home. It is used for making paintings, hosting workshops and filming videos; that;'s it, nothing else. There are no technological distractions because my laptop and all my office equipment is located in another area of my home. I know all artists don't have a dedicated space to paint. Everytime they want to paint, they have to pull supplies from a storage space, get set up, then paint. This is not ideal, because it takes time away from painting to set up your supplies, then clean them and put them away again after your painting session. If you fortunate enough to have a dedicated space there are a few things you may want to consider.

A very important part of your painting space is to have it organized - not an easy task for some artists. You need to have a place for your palette, your paints and your brushes so that they are within arms length of your painting surface (wall, easel, etc.). With this setup, if you need more paint, or additional brushes while painting, you don't have to disrupt your "flow" to go find them. I also organize my brushes by size so that when I reach for a brush on a certain area of my workstable, I know what size brush will be there.

Many years ago I built a rolling worktable that holds all of my supplies including my palette, paint jars, brushes, water buckets, paper towels, spray bottle, palette knives, watercolor paper, hanging accessories, framing accessories, tape, gallon buckets of paint and gesso, varnishes and mediums. I can easily roll it around the studio where it needs to go to accommodate painting activities, exhibitions, workshops, etc. This worktable has been my single best organizing system for my studio.

Another organizational tip that helps while painting is to have only of the paint colors that you are using at the time near your palette while all other colors are away from your palette. Sometimes when you are in the heat of battle making your painting you forget what colors you have out on your palette if you aren't that familiar with your colors. If those containers of paint are right by your palette it is easy to remember which colors you are using so that you can quickly refill your palette with color as needed.

If you are right handed all of your supplies should be on your right side; If left handed keep them on your left side. This eliminates crossing your body to get paint from your palette to the painting surface.

Remember, use a simple system to keep your workstation organized. Simple organization will help make you a better painter.