Favorite Art Materials

Someone asked me the other day what are my favorite art materials to use and oh my goodness, what a question, that is like who is your favorite child- I love them all.

Deeper pondering and a look at the desk in my bedroom corner studio revealed my favorites, the ones I use the most right now. Acrylic paints, spray inks, inca gold, modelling paste, impasto gel, gesso, posca pint pens, stamp pads, stencils and gelli plates- and a realisation I can pack a whole lot of stuff into a little space and still work here.

I also have collage elements, paint brushes and pallet knives, baby wipes, paper towel, art journals, tapes and oil pastels on my desk right now and my laptop. 

My top drawer in my desk has a selection of my favorite pens. Right now I can not get enough of Sakura Souffle, Glaze and Metallic gelly roll pens- I love them. My other absolute favorite pen of the moment are the posca paint pens- they write on anything and come in a great selection of sizes and colours.

Next drawer down has a selection of handy tools.
Brayers, scissors, pencil sharpeners, tweezers, knives, stapler etc. Other drawers hold receipts and paperwork, stationary etc.  Embellishments, paper cutter, corner cutter and assorted other cutters.

In close reach I have a stack of drawers filled with spare pens and pencils, pastels, scissors, glue and book binding supplies. Other drawers hold needle felting equipment, beads and jewelry making gear. The box on top hold a good supply of gelli prints, some odds and ends and the essential radio so I can listen to RN.

I have a wonderful set of shelves right beside my desk jam packed with all sorts of goodies. It has a shelf of art journals I am working in and books I am making. A shelf of stamping stuff- ink pads, stamps and my hand made stamps.

This box is one filled with my hand made stamps.

These shelves also house lots of paints and my larger stencils, paper and magazines I keep. 

I also have this lovely big shelf filled finished Art Journals and other supplies I use less often.

Where do you do it?

Art- where do you do it? I have been doing art all my life, it is my passion and it feeds my soul, it is vital to my well being and I have done it all over the place. As a girl I remember being sprawled all over my bedroom floor surrounded by rolls of tape and the contents of the recycling box creating all manner of things, lost in the act of creation often making something for my mum or a gift for someone else. It is a really happy memory that transports me back to a time of innocent fun.

I have had dedicated studio's where all of my supplies were laid out and organised, I had the freedom to leave my easels up and work on multiple works at the same time leaving them in place until I got them finished. Having a studio helped me be much more productive and have exhibitions and sell at stalls and markets and one day I will have my own studio space here but I have a house that needs finishing and kids that need homeschooling and students to teach right now.

I have used the dining table for years and possibly created more art there than anywhere else. My kids have grown up at that table as we are a homeschool family and the end of the table is always neatly stacked with art materials and home school supplies, partially cleared for every meal with a full clear when we have extra's eating here or a big project on.

I have journaled in many places, at the park watching my boys grow up, these days we do it at the skate park or the BMX track,in the library, at the pool, at the beach down the river. At tennis, soccer, little athletics and rowing, at scouts, at friends places. When we are travelling

 the bed in my van or the drivers seat serve as my mobile studio.

 Journaling in the back of my van.

We have been renovating for years and at one stage I had a huge studio in this house but that space has been renovated back into living space and now houses my new bedroom and the kitchen we are still working on and I have started to set up a little studio space in my new bedroom.

 It is in a light filled corner with 2 glass walls overlooking the back deck and one of the parrot cages. We share our home with 6 free flighted lorikeets and I love the colourful visitors I have. Beyond the deck is our back yard, and that is really another art work I am playing with as I slowly make over that area into garden and beyond that a 700 acre paddock with hazy blue hills in the distance. The paddock is a changing stage with big mobs of  kangaroos out there often, cows use it regularly and so many birds. Many parrots besides our lorikeets and their wild friends there are black and the occasional white cocatoos, galahs and corellas. king parrots and rosella's. Magpies, butcher birds, currawongs and pigeons and doves. Willie wagtails and owls, whistling kites and wedge tail eagles. Pelicans and jabiru like the dam and the ibis and heron and cranes come much closer browsing in our garden. Now I have my bedroom and back deck overlooking that area I will be able to enjoy it so much more.