There has been some amazing things going on in my studio this week.....not painting just construction! I got the idea of a studio hanging system from Renee Muller- an American artist who I've been following for sometime. She shared how batons had been screwed into her studio wall enabling her to hang large canvases was well as smaller works on boards. After thinking about it for a while, I got in touch with a friend who is carpenter, showed him a picture of Renee's wall from instagram and he created a fantastic version of it for me. No longer will I need the cumbersome easel!
Now I can actually work on the wall in multiples, making a series so much easier to achieve. I can prop up my 12 by 12in panels and view them together as a whole rather as separate pieces. It also gives me new room for storage- it's the best thing I've done for ages!
I've learnt the benefits of not procrastinating- if you want something done, just get on and do it, it's really worth the effort.
My first painting session has already brought me so much pleasure- below are a couple of the panels I have in progress. they have a very different feel to my previous work; they speak of summer holidays, memories of times spent in heat and in foreign climbs. I've gone back to working techniques involving scraping back, sanding and layering These are the start of my work for the Leigh Art Trail- September 2022.....
I am incredibly lucky to have Squeeze in Leigh broadway as my venue. It's a beautiful cafe that serves amazing food, coffee and of course, juice. If you are in Leigh on Sea and you've haven't tried it yet, I can thoroughly recommend it. They now have a gorgeous garden (complete with beautiful umbrellas), an upstairs with a fabulous view leading down to the sea. I've added a link below to Squeeze's website, I can't wait to have my work on those pristine walls!
If you are interested in seeing how this collection is coming along, follow me on Instagram as I am documenting them using reels! What do you think of these colours? Do get in touch, as I love to receive feedback, you can contact me via email hello@clairehankeyartist.com.
Finally, I am working on a new 'secret' page of my website, purely for my mailing list. If you would like to part of this, please sign up it would be great to have you there! I will be posting a video talking about my new work on there over the next month, so do sign up if you are interested.
Claire
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