June 9:  In mid-April, I discovered 3 garbage bags filled with unfinished oil-paintings.   Seven or eight years ago, I'd set them aside in order to deal with a family crisis.  I'd completely forgotten about them until my sister pointed out the garbage bags to me and asked me to remove the bags from her barn, where they'd been stored.  Had she never decided to move & clean out her barn and house, I don't know if I'd ever have remembered them.  


As I looked at each painting, I was filled with a sense of wanting to finish them and I gave that sense a lot of thought during the week before I went back to remove the paintings.  The major problem to finishing each one is that I don't want to work on them in my already crowded living space.  My studio space is the 2nd bedroom in my 2 bedroom apartment and that is already filled with on-going projects.  My living room is filled with on-going watercolor projects.  I didn't want the added mess or the toxic odor of painting in oils.


In the economic crises of the past 4 or 5 years, I've sold little of the art I have.  I don't really have the money for supplies to start anything new, nor do I have the desire, so have spent the last year finishing the many watercolors I've begun and then set-aside.  A few weeks before discovering the oils in the garbage bags, I'd finished some 30 paintings & was looking for a new project.  It somehow seemed auspicious to me -- the discovery of the oils semed to me the finger of The Universe pointing me in a certain direction.  I went through my oil painting supplies and found that although dust-covered, my supplies were ample.  One morning during the week, prompted by reading about the latest #Occupy news on Facebook & by that same Universe, the thought came to me that since summer and good weather (hopefully) are coming, I could use my garage as a summer studio.  


Using my garage as a summer studio made perfect sense to me.  I support but am not about to #Occupy Wall St in person.  Understanding the introvert I am, I've been concentrating on #Occupy My Life as well as Save money on Gas -- stay home.  


My garage is basically an unappealing place; I only use it in winter, when it's some protection to my car.  It's more like a shed, attached to a 2 car garage.  The 2 other tenants in my house have much better garages.  The roof on mine is rotting & covered with live & growing weeds in warm seasons, the floor is dirt covered with gravel, water runs down the back wall and the one inside wall when it rains and there's an ever-present funky odor -- probably the rotting roof, maybe a dead squirrel -- and is pink.  I've always called it Little Pink, rather than Garage.


The appeal to using my garage as a summer studio is that half of it is dry and I can store my easel, chair, supplies and canvases in that area.  The light is always good.  There's a brook running down the culvert behind my garage and the sounds of it are sweet.  There are many trees in my neighborhood and lining the culvert behind the garage and there are always birds in the trees, so much bird-song in these spring months.  On sunny days, I pull all my supplies out into the driveway and work in the sun.  On rainy days I can set up my easel at the opening, in the dry half.  There's no electricity, so I can't work at night nor can I set up an electric heater; my work on the forgotten paintings is Weather Permitting & daytime hours only.  I'm within range of my wireless router, so can take my computer with me.  Most of the time I don't because I prefer the hours of peace and quiet listening to the brook, the birds and sounds from the street.  


I love having a place to go where the distractions are few.  When I work in the house, I'm constantly distracted by the mundane and necessary housework; cooking, washing and on and on ad infiitum.  My summer studio is simple and the distractions are few.   When I need a break from painting, my garden is easily acessible and when I need food or a pit-stop, my house is close-by. 


My goal, regarding these forgotten paintings and my summer studio, is to work on them with an aim to finishing them by autumn, when I will no longer be able to work outside.    


This blog is intended to keep track of my process and progress and things inbetween.