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Saturday, May 05, 2012

A Great Studio Find from Ikea

'Moody Blues'      18x18      pastel  SOLD
I am never without my dishtowels in the studio.  I keep a large basket of various size towels near my easel. I also have a smaller basket for the dirty towels. I use them for everything. On the floor to catch pastel dust, on tables when using tabletop easels over my shoulder when I paint, line my butchers trays...and on and on.

The biggest use for the towels is to keep my pastels clean while I paint. I like a towel handy so I can swipe the pastel in between passages. This way you keep your colors bright and clean. When the towel gets dirty, I throw it in the basket until I have enough to do laundry.

I had been using an odd assortment of dish towels. I like the thinner ones best. But my students always have the best ideas. One student uses her husband's gold towels. You know the kind with the metal clip? She attaches the clip to her painting apron strap and it is always handy. Love this idea!  Another student found these great hand towels at our local Ikea. They have loops sewn in so I can thread my apron strap through the look keeping the towel in reach yet hands free. It is lightweight too. And she picked a great color! Thank you morning class for your helpful pastel tips!

Today's painting is a commission I did for one of my collectors. She wanted a big blue sunflower. This was so much fun to paint!


1 comment:

robertsloan2art said...

That is gorgeous! I love today's painting, you cut loose with every blue in the box and made a glorious explosion of color. I can't help but smile at the sight of it. Blue is such a passive color but your strong strokes and jazzy marks give it a lot of motion and lively joy.

Thanks for the validation! I keep my Painting Towels handy all the time. Sometimes I use actual terry cloth towels, a cheap bath towel that I get the bottom quarter wet and keep 3/4 dry. I discovered that when I was doing street portraits in the French Quarter - quick wipe my hands off on the wet end and dry on the dry end between colors. That went over the arm of my chair.

The Ikea towels with the loop are a great idea. Someone who's handy could sew a loop onto towels they already have. If you're not handy, use a safety pin to attach a loop of what's it called - it's in the sewing notions rack, next to rick rack, it's that folded ribbon stuff that goes stitched onto seams in fancy stuff like wedding dresses. Seam Binding. Yeah. It comes in packets of three or four yards of it so you can get a color that goes with your towels and a pack of safety pins and upgrade the towels you've already got.

Unless a trip to Ikea would be an upper - sometimes it's cool to get something new that's sturdily constructed and know it's for that purpose. But for anyone short on cash, the safety pin and seam binding will work too.