The kitchen table is my studio and I've accepted it
Painted a still life tonight at the kitchen table after the kids went down. Same table we ate spaghetti at two hours earlier. I wiped it down, laid out the drop cloth, and there's still a smear of tomato sauce on the corner of my reference photo that I just decided to live with.
I used to feel bad about not having a real studio space. Read all these posts about people's dedicated rooms with north light and proper easels and I'd get all wistful. But honestly the kitchen table works. The light is awful. The cat walks across my palette at least twice a session. My 8 year old stuck a drawing of a dinosaur to the easel I can't even use because there's no room for it.
But it's the only uninterrupted hour I get and I'll take it. Finished a decent little pear study tonight, better than my last one. That's the whole win. Packed it up and now I'm eating leftover spaghetti over the sink like a civilized person.
Who else is painting on a dining room table or a folding tray or wherever they can grab space?
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the tomato sauce staying on the reference photo is so real. that's not a flaw, that's provenance lol. my setup is a folding table in the corner of my bedroom and the cat does the same thing, i've just started painting around whatever footprints she leaves.
north light is overrated anyway. i painted my best stuff in a windowless room with a lamp i got for $8. the grass is always greener until you're in a pristine studio too scared to make a mess. kitchen table means the work survives real life, which honestly reads in the painting.
The provenance thing made me laugh but it's exactly right. I work in collage so my whole practice is built on stains and smears and old margins. If the paper's clean I'm not that interested in it.
I think there's something real in what you said about pristine studios being paralyzing. A space that's already precious makes you make precious things. I'd rather work where the table's had coffee rings on it and something might spill. Keeps it honest.
Ha, "precious makes precious", that's going to stick with me. You're onto something. I think there's a freedom in knowing the space isn't going to stay clean no matter what, so you stop guarding it and just make the thing.
Collage makes so much sense for that though. You're already working with found life, the stains are basically material. I love that. With paint I feel like I'm still trying to hide the mess sometimes, like if I work fast enough no one will notice the struggle. But honestly some of my favorite pieces are the ones where I gave up on tidiness and just let it go where it went.
Also I'm a little jealous of collage because there's no drying time. My still life is sitting on the table right now waiting for tomorrow and the cat is absolutely going to walk through it again.
The cat footprints thing is so familiar. I had one walk through a wet wash last week and now there's a tiny paw print in the sky of an almost-finished piece. I considered fixing it for about ten seconds and then decided it stays. It's kind of a nice reminder of who I share the house with honestly.
And you're right about the pristine studio thing. My sister-in-law has a gorgeous dedicated space she never uses because she's intimidated by it. Meanwhile I'm splashing paint at a table that still smells faintly of garlic bread and somehow the stuff gets done. Provenance lol. I'm keeping that word.