A View From the Easel
“I’ve tried establishing routines, but I always end up reverting to a more spontaneous approach.”
Welcome to the 253rd installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists paint with corgis as companions, visit vulcanizer shops for spare materials, and observe the bustle of Manhattan from their windows.
Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us through this form! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your home studio.
Dela Anyah, Accra, Ghana
How long have you been working in this space?
Two years.
Describe an average day in your studio.
It's tempting to start my day by thinking about where I left off the day before, or considering how to improve a particular piece. I usually work on several projects at once, building each one steadily. I’ve tried establishing routines, but I always end up reverting to a more spontaneous approach.
Recently, while purchasing objects for my studio practice, a new idea emerged, leading me to pause other projects and focus on bringing this new concept to life. It consumed me, requiring extensive research, additional purchases, prayer, and experimentation until I got it right. I often watch YouTube videos before and during work, but I try to stay off Instagram as I find myself constantly logging on. Nowadays, I reserve podcast listening for times when I’m not in the studio.
How does the space affect your work?
The high walls and spacious environment allow me to create large-scale works and provide ample room to store the many found and discarded objects I acquire from the vulcanizer shops I visit.
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?
I make purchases at many vulcanizer shops within the community. I can’t create my work without these shops and consider them an extension of my practice, as I have exhibited my works in these spaces before. While there isn’t an art community near my studio, I am connected to other art communities within the country.
What do you love about your studio?
The memories of works created within the space.
What do you wish were different?
Its location.
What is your favorite local museum?
The Museum for Science and Technology.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Discarded inner tubes, all day. I love their ability to work with other objects and materials, and the histories embedded within them.
Olivia Beens, Dimes Square, Manhattan
How long have you been working in this space?
On and off for 44 years.
Describe an average day in your studio.
Usually I work on several pieces at once, moving back and forth between them especially when I’m unsure about what I’m doing. I like to experiment with materials and my work almost always has an autobiographical component to it. I listen to the radio when I’m working and spend three or four days in the studio each week. When I arrive, I write in one of my handmade books and also do so before I leave. It is a ritual.
How does the space affect your work?
Space affects my work enormously! And, luckily I am an adaptable person. I change materials accordingly, adjusting to the new views and rules, and naturally the outcome is different. I’m always learning new things in different environments.
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?
Right now my neighborhood is filled with people, restaurants, galleries, etc. I walk upstairs to the studio where I have a wonderful view of it all. I don’t go to the galleries often because I feel awkward and am older than most.
What do you love about your studio?
It is spacious and comfortable, and most of all I love the light and view.
What do you wish were different?
I’m happy to have it now after years of moving around! I wish the hallway and stairs were cleaned and normal instead of held together with L-brackets.
What is your favorite local museum?
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What is your favorite material to work with?
Clay.
Pia De Girolamo, Horsham, Pennsylvania
How long have you been working in this space?
About 21 years.
Describe an average day in your studio?
I usually start my day around 6:30am. I wake up without an alarm and first thing have my coffee. Jack, our 4-year-old cardigan corgi, gets fed and taken for a long walk where he mainly gets his neighborhood news by sniffing. I wander with him and say hi to other dog walkers and families waiting for the school bus. We come home and I exercise and meditate, which keeps me strong physically and mentally.
All this preamble is my onramp into the studio, which is in my home. I get in there around 10am. Jack is now past the stage where he eats paint tubes and thumbtacks on the studio floor, so now he gets to lie at my feet quietly while I paint. I work standing up, with several pieces of canvas or paper tacked to the wall, or more recently, with a canvas on the easel. I use acrylics; I stopped using oil decades ago because of a reaction to the solvents.
How does the space affect your work?
My studio is a room that was intended for plants, so it has a lot of light. It has tall windows that face south out to my backyard and west and a high ceiling, so I am used to painting in natural light. I find it difficult to paint at night. My palette and subject matter are directly related to the seasons, color, and the quality of the light I see outside my window. For example, I've painted the pines I see out back many times, in all kinds of weather.
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?
I live in a walkable suburban development with interesting features, like small woods and streams. I walk my dog every morning and meet neighbors doing the same. My current series features some scenes from these walks. There are a number of artists who live nearby and we get together about once a month for lunch or to visit each other's studios. I belong to a gallery in Philadelphia called Cerulean Arts Gallery and I am friends with a number of the artists there.
What do you love about your studio?
I love that it is filled with natural light, and the fact that it is in my house so I'm always set up and ready to go in and paint even if it is just for a short time.
What do you wish were different?
I wish it were just a little bigger.
What is your favorite local museum?
The Barnes Foundation.
