I have moved into a new studio space two blocks north of Lake Eola. The last cardboard boxes have been unpacked and it is time to start setting up the studio. Before I start getting furniture for the studio space, I decided to have an open house on July 4. My thought is that people will be making their way to Lake Eola all day for the fireworks which start around 9PM.
Many of the rooms in the Eola Heights apartment are virtually empty right now except the office which is where I sit each day to write articles and post on social media. The art studio itself is empty except for some flat files. I have plenty of framed art stored in the archives so I will cover all the empty wall space with art this week. With six empty rooms, I decided to think of the entire studio as prime gallery space.
My studio and office windows face south, and I put art in the windows each day, so people have something to see when they walk by. On July 4th there will be so many more people walking by to migrate down the two blocks to Lake Eola.
The open house is a celebration of my move to downtown. I walk or bike to many of the events I sketch now which is delightful. I used to have to drive an hour and a half to get to events.
I have started a series of plein-air oil paintings of Lake Eola. I get up at 6AM each morning and walk to the lake to paint. This morning I was painting and a huge splash of water hit me while I was painting. WTF, my shirt was soaked. I looked up at the tree branches above me. Was I just hit with a splash of pelican pee? I sniffed my wet hand, it didn’t have any scent. Then I looked behind me. The sprinklers had turned on to water the prodigious amount of grass behind me. My spot in the pine needles was just at the outer edge of the reach of the spray of water. I would get hit every time the stream arched my way. I had to quickly pack up.
My oil painting panel was soaked. I had sketched on the panel with an ink brush and that ink started bleeding down the now wet surface. Bloody hell, I need to get waterproof ink. I had built a flat storage container to get the 13 by 21-inch panels to and from the studio. I felt the design was ingenious with a sliding panel which could slide open like a drawer creating a desk for the palate to go on. Unfortunately, the design was too slim which meant the painting would get scraped when I slid it back in the container to transport. I need to double the depth to avoid scraping off paint. That is my task for today.
If you plan to see the fireworks at Lake Eola, you should stop by the Eola Heights studio and say hello. You can see my failed plein-air attempt firsthand, but hopefully I will have the problems worked out by July 4th and have several complete Lake Eola paintings. I have a bunch of Winter Park small plein-air lakeside paintings in the kitchen which are just $50 each.
The Analog Artist Digital World address is 513 East Livingston Street, Unit B, Orlando Florida 32803. The entrance is under the car port where my silver Prius will be parked. I can’t offer parking on the property but there should be parking spots all around the neighborhood. Parking is available in downtown surface lots and garages. So, search out a super-supremo parking spot and then stop by the studio to say hello, see some art, and soak in the air conditioning before going down the two blocks to Lake Eola to scout out a fireworks viewing location. I will be walking down to Lake Eola to do a digital sketch or watercolor as the sun sets.