The Creative Space: Inside the Artist’s Workshop

The studio is a room adapted to certain requirements, designed and built for this special destination. It is the refuge or even the entire universe of the artist . The requirements for this space to fulfill its purpose are several, very important aspects.

Image of Cézanne-style lighting workshop

The first, and perhaps most important, is light , which plays a decisive role in color perception. In a space where we have very intense light, the perception of colors changes, tending towards white. And in a space with insufficient light, the brightness and degree of saturation of colors will decrease. 

Rembrandt-style lighting studio

Workshop image – Francis Bacon

We will thus see that, for example, yellow will tend towards green, and green towards blue. Also, a painting exposed in other lighting conditions than those in which it was painted, can generate surprises for the painter. Artificial light sources, fluorescent or incandescent, which replace natural light can bring changes and deformations to the chromatic mixtures thought of by the painter. In different periods and areas, painters were interested in different aspects of light. Thus, for painters from the south, what Cennino Cennini said applies: " When drawing, sit down in such a way that you have the right light, and the sun is shining on your left side ." (Liviu Lăzărescu – Oil Painting, Ed. Sigma Plus, Deva, 1996, p.295), and those from the north preferred directed light with a source oriented towards the south. In the period closer to our days, instead, artists approached working with artificial light. In the absence of optimal lighting, the solution to a certain extent is to mix a warm light source with a cold light source.

The workshop must be equipped, regardless of size, with an annex or shelves for storing and preserving works, in conditions of constant humidity and temperature.

The creative space must also contain: an easel, a palette, brushes, and other tools for applying color, colors and buckets , etc.

The easel was first represented in Antiquity, in Pompeii. Workshop easels must be stable, possibly with the possibility of movement (on wheels), the vertical sliding is achieved with a rack and pinion gear, and more recently they also have a tilting system to avoid reflections.

Different types of workshop easels

The plein-air easel is different from the studio one, being foldable and made of wood or aluminum. The most efficient ones are the Russian-made ones, which have foldable and telescopic legs, support the box of colors, on which the palette is placed, and the foldable lid has extensions made of aluminum rods that constitute the support for the canvas. This "kit" may also include a foldable stool and a parasol.

Plein-air easel

More modern artists, such as Jackson Pollock, did away with the easel and painted directly on the floor.

Tonitza said: " The order and cleanliness of a painter's palette is the mirror of his inner discipline and his pure love for the profession he has chosen. " The palette is a flat, smooth surface, made of non-absorbent wood, metal, porcelain or, more recently, plastic, of rectangular or oval shape for mixing colors. Also according to Tonitza, a palette that can address all the "motifs" of painting would have a distribution of colors in the form of a rainbow with white positioned centrally, being the most often used. However, the number of colors used in a work remains at the discretion of the painter.

Palettes of different shapes and color arrangements

After each work session, the palette is cleaned with a palette knife, removing dried and caked-on colors, and the wood is washed with an essence and polished with a few drops of linseed oil, thus making the palette smooth and shiny.

Equally indispensable to the painter are brushes , simple and effective tools. Before their appearance, fingers or the palm of the hand were used, or even the spraying of colored pigments with the help of plant stems.

Throughout the evolution of painting, different techniques have used different types of brushes, thus, water techniques (watercolor, gouache, tempera and more recently acrylic) use brushes with soft, elastic, flat or round hair, which form a point. Those made of squirrel, ferret, camel, etc. hair are sought after and appreciated. For the oil technique, brushes with pig hair, stiffer and less flexible, flat or round, are preferred. Today, brushes with synthetic hair have also appeared.

Brushes of different sizes and shapes

Proper cleaning of brushes at the end of a work session is particularly important, as it extends their lifespan. While washing is relatively simple for water techniques, for oil techniques, an essence (oil) is first used to remove excess color, and then washed with warm water and soap. A good brush will retain its shape even after several washes.

The palette knife is a tool used by painters whose temperament has not always been satisfied with brushes. Thus, it is used not so much for mixing colors on the palette, but for applying them to the surface of the painting. It is recommended that it have a flexible steel blade, with a rounded or obliquely cut tip.

Different shapes of palette knives

Today's artists use countless tools to apply colors to canvas: from used brushes, crumpled paper, sponges, spatulas or trowels; and the list goes on.

The bucket is a metal container of various sizes fixed to the edge of the palette (generally two are used) in which oil is kept, respectively an essence (turpentine) for cleaning the brushes during work. Their cleaning is necessary at the end of each work session to remove residues and dirty oils.

Double metal bucket

Another tool found in the painter's studio is called Malerstock (Ger.) or appui main (Fr.). This is a stick about 1 m long, equipped at the end with a small sphere covered in cloth so as not to damage the edge of the painting, it is held obliquely with the left hand, serving as a support for the right hand, which handles the brush.

Hand support

Color tubes have had a surprising evolution over time: from hollow reeds , to the bags of Antiquity, the bladder or " blisters" made from the stomach or intestines of animals, then to lead or tin vessels, and in our era to the foldable tin tube. For long-term preservation of colors, they must be protected from frost or excessive heat.

Oil paint tubes (modern) made of tin

Other tools that must be found in a painter's studio include a paint box - where the colors are stored and transported, with compartments for the bucket, oil bottle, brushes. A must-have in a painter's studio are canvas-stretching tools (canvas-stretching pliers, hammer nails, nail pliers, and more recently, staplers), various pots and utensils for preparing primers , larger or smaller drawing boards , folders for storing drawings, watercolors, and sketches.

Image of a workshop and various tools