Studio re-new

I will take a little break from my painting journals and talk about a project I taken on in the past few months... a studio re-new. I currently have a home based studio, one room dedicated to creating, storing, and imagining possible work. As you can well imagine it is rammed full of paintings, paints, easels, foam core, matte board, frames, etc.

I have had a number of different studios since my graduation from art school, in basements, garages, spare rooms, and even one warehouse space, but my current studio is my best studio by a long way. My studio is the master bedroom of my home, it was chosen because it had the best light, the most space, and an interesting roof line. I also share this studio with Eric Nylen, portrait painter. In the past few months we have under taken a re-vamp of the studio space, by painting the walls, working on a collaborative mural(watch for a posted photo in the weeks to come), and hanging wall paper on the longest wall, yes you heard me... wallpaper! I ordered the paper from the UK, from Cole and Son the pattern is called Malabar (see in photo above). The studio is also filled with a number of items I have picked up on my travels. Whenever I have gone abroad, I have always been on a shoe string budget, so I started getting in the habit of bring home found souvenirs. Some examples of this is shard of broken tile, glass bottles, sea shells, coral, dried pods, and pine cones. I also have a collection of postcards from art galleries and museums I have visited. I started collecting the postcards to remember the places I have been, and because they were cheap and light to carry. All of these little items are mementos that remind me of a past journey, but these objects also describe my personal aesthetic; the colors, forms, and lines that I am drawn to.

I also have a sketchbook that I fill with magazine clippings, mainly from design books that I buy. This is a good practice for a budding artist or anyone thinking of taking on a design or renovation project, to help you discover your personal style.

Welcome to Farrera

I arrived first in Paris in early April of 2008. I will never forgot the wave that washed over me while travelling from the airport on the metro. It was a grey day and graffiti lined the train track. I had my head set on and the lyrics sang out "I have been waiting, I have been waiting for this moment all my life".

Farrera is just on the over the French boarder in the Spanish Pyrenees Mountain range. The village has 25 residents, no store, restaurant, or café and public transport only arrives once a week. To get to Farrera, I first took a five hour bus ride from Barcelona that stopped in a town called Llavorsi at the base of the mountain. I was given instruction to find a small bar and call a taxi to take me up to the art centre. A half hour later a woman and her young daughter rolled up to the bar and in a giant black SUV and asked if I was Lisa, I nodded. Then the pair proceeded to grab my bags and began ascending up the long winding road. I saw a tiny sign that simply said Farrera. The village it's self is pretty and quaint. All the houses are made of stone and it is forbidden to construct with new materials; it was like I had entered an place where time had stopped.

The landscape surrounding Farrera is very simular to the Canadian Rocky Mountains, covered with evergreens and mountain peaks. I found my time in the studio observing the landscape, to be very inspiring. Although the series of work that came from my time on the mountain, is not literal a depiction of the Spanish Pyrenees the colors, lines, and forms of the pieces were informed by this region. Before my stay at the art centre, I often used the personal symbol of a falling leaf in my paintings, after my stay I also have began regularly utilizing falling cherry blossoms in my pieces, as a symbol of inner serenity and peace.