The GREAT BIG Studio!!!
- On January 4, 2012
- By Aaron
- In Field Notes
1
I have now officially moved to a GREAT BIG STUDIO! For my first year out of art school I had no studio at all, and my wife and I lived in a very very small apartment, so if I was going to paint, it had to be out on location. This turned out to be a blessing, as the best way to learn and grow is to get out and paint the real thing. After a year I scored my first studio: a converted janitor’s closet in an art center in Bozeman. It was so small that for me to paint in the studio, I had to move everything out into the hall every day. I actually sold some artwork this way, as people would see pastels taped to drawing boards leaned up against the walls. After another year, I moved into a somewhat bigger studio in the same building, and stayed there for the next ten years.
After moving to Livingston, with a lot of help from my Dad and a friend, we converted an alley garage into a studio. It’s a beautiful space that has served me well for the last six years. Here’s a pic I took just before the move:
It’s, well, rather full. I’ve never been accused of being organized, (I’m always fighting the forces of chaos!) but there was a point when my wife looked around the studio and admitted that no matter how much cleaning and organizing that I did, it was just full. And stuff was overflowing into the house, boxes, half-finished frames etc.
The short of it is this: we found a GREAT BIG STUDIO with a very reasonable rent. It’s in an old schoolhouse in downtown Livingston. Here are the first pics:
The pic to your left is the main room. Yes, you hear that right, the main room. There are more: 
the pic to the right is a storage room. And, yes, it’s bigger than the janitor’s-closet-studio. Frame-moulding, gold leafing equipment, glass and finished frames go here. There’s more:
This will be the office. Just need to find some furniture.
I’ve finally unpacked enough to start working, and I’ve noticed two things straight off: First, I don’t have the distractions (or shall I call it temptations!) of home. I would wander into the house to use the bathroom, decide to make coffee, check facebook, and look! There went a half-hour! Oops. I’ve already been more productive in the new space. Second, I’m finding it easier to work on multiple paintings. Right now I have two paintings, a pastel, and a charcoal drawing in the works. Quite simply, I have the room to set something aside when I’m stuck and start on another piece.
I’m still pinching myself. I’ve visited big studios, subverted feelings of envy, and somehow thought I’d never have one myself. Now here it is. I am not a New Year’s resolution kind of person, but I have started to hope that I’ll look back on this move as a creative transition, that in this room I’ll learn to be less afraid of large paintings, that I’ll take some more risks, and use the gift of time in a way that shows how grateful I am to have it.
Deep in Yellowstone
- On October 14, 2011
- By Aaron
- In Field Notes
- 0
A week ago I had the opportunity to hike deep into the Yellowstone backcountry with Butch Bach, a longtime Yellowstone Park Ranger, and the guy who wrote the book on the wild interior of Yellowstone. Trace any line across a Yellowstone map, on or off trail, and he has probably walked it, or skied it. We started from Pelican Valley, near Yellowstone Lake, hiked over Mist Creek pass, through Lamar River Canyon, and exited the Lamar Valley. Thirty-five miles in four days. The best perk to hiking with a ranger: we got to stay in patrol cabins, an ammenity not normally available to civilians.
Some pics from the trip:
Rule #1: Bison always have right of way. Especially when they are running down the trail toward you.
Butch Bach: About the best hiking companion a person can have. We’re coming off of Mist Creek Pass. You can still see ample evidence of the 1988 fires. At times I get discouraged to see all the charred trees, but then I remind myself that I’m living through a Genesis story. I just won’t be around long enough to see it finished.
At the end of a long day it was great to relax at patrol cabin. This is one of the oldest, near to where the last of the bison nearly went extinct a century ago. Only the bravery of an army officer kept an infamous poacher from finishing them off. But that’s another story…
I love the little creeks in Yellowstone. I brought a watercolor kit and did a 9×12 sketch of it. Enjoyed working in a new medium, but, well, it’s just not easy! Stay tuned for some studio paintings based on the sketches.
Here it is folks! Grizzly bear scat. Bet that bear felt better after unloading that! Saw scat and tracks everywhere.
Sometimes the greatest beauty is not the far off vistas, but a patch of Oregon grape right at your feet.
Nearing the finish. The weather has turned cold, and that night it would snow in the mountains. Hiking thirty-five miles through some of the wildest remaining wilderness just does something to you. It’s like a reset. Now to look through the sketches and watercolors and plan new paintings, so that I have an excuse to go back there, if only in my memory.