Setting Up For Robert Johnson's Painting Workshop At The Art Guild Of Port Washington

In July, The Art Guild of Port Washington was lucky enough to host Robert Johnson for a very rare New York area workshop.  I have a ton of photos from the workshop itself, but I thought you might like to see how we set up for a still life workshop.

I've been to several workshops where there are no set ups and the students are left to fend for themselves, often with lackluster props.  Also, there can be people in a workshop who are new to still life and may not know how to do a proper set up.   And don't get me started on sharing a set up in an expensive workshop.

When we do still life at The Art Guild, everyone has their own set up, already set up the day before the class starts.

We have a lot of props there as two of us are still life artists and there are also a lot of "community" props, things that people have donated and are for everyone to use.

Luckily, my studio mate is a very talented floral designer as well as a painter, so she is able to buy flowers at a distributor for the classes, and she makes the most amazing floral arrangements.

The first thing I do is get my own supplies together and pack them in my paint box.  It is one less thing to worry about in the midst of everything else that is going on.

Next up is purchasing supplies.  For a still life/floral workshop, we gather a few buckets full of flowers, and a variety of fruit ( lemons, red and green grapes, oranges, apples, etc).

We then get all the props in one place.  Fabrics, vases, small objects, crystal pieces and presentation boards to hold up the fabrics and create a background.

And then it begins.  We spend a LOT of time with the set ups.  It's quite rare that we just pull some objects and fruit and create a set up.  They go through lots of changes.  Fruit, objects and flowers go in and out until the still life is just right.  This can take some time and people often look at us like we are nuts, but what is the point in doing a workshop with all of these beautiful things if you are not going to make it the best it can be, right?

These are some of the set ups that we ended up with.  You may be wondering what the little post it notes on some of the shelves are for.  When using fruit in a still life, I like to include one or two pieces of cut fruit, but I don't want to do that until the morning of the workshop, so we put a mini post it in the spot we want to use for the fruit slice as a reminder.  This way it's easy to just come in and cut the fruit and not have to think about where it belongs.

Two other things I should mention.  Lighting is very important.  In a workshop, there is rarely natural light for everyone, so we use spotlights with daylight bulbs.  We just hook them up at either side of the still life to create shadows and they work very well.  The other is how we actually make the set up.  We use milk crates to create height and then lay wooden shelves on top of them.  If you go to Home Depot, you can just tell them the size you want and they will cut them up right there.  We then stained them with Minwax Dark Walnut.  We clip the fabric to the presentation boards and then you are ready to start styling.

When people see me doing set ups, they will often ask how I know when it's right.  I wish I had an answer to that question, but unfortunately, I don't.  I do follow two basic rules.  The still life should be a triangle and should read from left to right.  But the rest is just having an eye for when it is right.  I take my time with the set ups and if there has to be a ten minute discussion of whether there should be one grape or two on the right side of the still life, that is what happens.  I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't rush in order to get it done quickly and if something doesn't look quite right, change it.  No need to have anything that drags down the set up.

It is also really helpful to consult books on the type of set ups you want to do.  We had Robert Johnson's book open while we were doing these to make sure they were along the line of what he would want to paint.

In addition to Robert's book,  David Leffel and Sherrie McGraw's books are a great source of inspiration for this type of still life set up, as well as any book on Chardin or the Dutch Masters.  I look at them all the time and they are so helpful.

The students were so happy with the set ups and thanked us for making them available, which was so nice.  I want people at a workshop to be happy and if they are paying for the class, they deserve the best you can give. ( Can you tell I recently had a crappy workshop??? :)

I always love a behind the scenes look, so I hope you enjoyed this one.  I'll have a separate post about the workshop itself.  It was amazing.  If you have any questions about setting up a still life or a workshop, leave me a comment.  I'm happy to try and help!

** I just want to make clear as per the rules that I was not comped in any way for anything in this post.  I paid for the workshop and helped out as a volunteer. The props and supplies that were used were purchased by us or were things we already owned.**

How To Set Up For A Floral Painting Workshop

Last month Gregg Kreutz was back at The Art Guild Of Port Washington, this time for a two day floral workshop.

We had a sold out class, so we needed fourteen floral set ups.  Thirteen for the students and one for Gregg.  My studio mate is a very talented floral designer and we worked together to get everything done for the workshop.

We gathered a ton of flowers, fruit and various vases and objects and got to work.

Once we had everything gathered, we began to do the set ups.  As you can see, the beginnings of a still life set up are not very glamorous.  Several weeks before the workshop, we began collecting milk crates to use as a base.  A few days prior to the workshop, we got the wooden shelves at Home Depot. You just tell them the size you want and how many and they cut them right there.  We then stained them using Minwax Dark Walnut, the same color I stained the shelves in my studio.

My bud Ilene and I work very well together, so we always have fun setting up.  I'm good with still lifes and she is great with flowers, so between us we get it done.

After placing the wooden shelves on top of the milk crates, we put a presentation board behind the crate in order to hold the fabric.  We got these from Staples, but the party store near my house carries them as well.  We draped the fabric over the board and then secured it in place with large clips.

It was then time to get to the flowers and fruit.  We started by picking out a vase that worked with the particular fabric we were working on.  We would then choose flowers that complimented them both and then we would decide if the set up needed anything else.  Some we left with flowers only, others we added fruit, petals, another object or something else.  You can't really decide in advance what you will do.  Once you have your main pieces in place you have to experiment a bit to see what looks the best.

Here are some of our set ups.

This is the set up that I painted

You'll notice in the photo above that there are post it notes on the shelf.  Due to the fact that we did the set ups the day before the workshop, we did not want to leave cut up fruit or petals out an extra night, so we used the post it notes as reminders of what needed to be done the next morning.  They were very specific - "apple slice", "rose petal", "green leaf".  The first morning of a workshop can be a little chaotic and you don't want to have to try and remember what you wanted for the set up.  With the reminder notes you can just get down to business without having to think about it too much.

Gregg starting the workshop with a demo

One tip, make sure you have extra fruit and flowers for the second or third days of the workshop.  Things often have to be replaced, usually cut fruit or some of the stems, and you don't want to be caught short.

Setting up a still life is a lot like being a stylist.  There are two guidelines that I follow:  You want the shape to be triangular and the set up should read from left to right.  After that, it is really a matter of using your eye to see what works.  This takes some time, so don't rush it and don't worry if you don't get it right the first time.  After we set everything up, we went back around to each still life and double checked that everything was in order.  Sometimes things stayed the same, others we adjusted by either adding something or taking something out.  On one of them, we spent some time deciding if we were going to use one grape or two on the shelf.  There was a guy in the office fixing the computer and I'm sure he thought we had gone completely off the deep end, but these tiny details matter.  You don't want a boring or incomplete still life set up, not for yourself and certainly not for a workshop.

We had a great two days painting flowers and the students raved about the set ups.  I was so happy that people really liked them because you want to do the best for your workshop participants. As for my painting, I decided to use a 16x20 canvas so I didn't get very far, but I did manage to get the whole canvas covered and I am working on it now.  Luckily, my floral designer is right across the hall :)

Have any questions about  setting up?  Leave me a comment!

How I Built My Collection Of Still Life Props

Recently, I've gotten a few questions about how I built up my collection of still life props.  While I will paint the occasional portrait or landscape, I am a still life artist, so that means I need vases, objects and fabrics in addition to fruit and flowers.

When I got my studio a few years ago, I started on the hunt for objects to paint.  The vase in the painting above, Lilacs, was the first piece I bought.  I got it in a vintage shop near my house.  It was very overpriced, but I liked it and have used it in several paintings, so it was worth it.  

My next big score was a lucky find on Craigslist.  An estate sale was being held at the home of a serious blue and white collector.  I didn't know about the sale until a few hours after it started, so when I got there, the seller was happy to make me a deal.  I got a bunch of items for less than the price of the vase above.  

These are some of my small pieces.  Many of the items here came in a box I won on Ebay.  I got very lucky and searched "blue and white porcelain" and came away with a box of blue and white odds and ends.  The whole box was only $27.00 and I've used the pieces in it many times over.  Ebay is a great resource for still life painters.  The search terms I use are "blue and white porcelain", "vintage blue and white", "vintage blue transferware" "vintage silver (pitcher, footed bowl - whatever you are looking for)"  "vintage delft" "vintage blue and white Chinese porcelain".  I could go on, but you get the idea.  I prefer vintage items for my paintings, so that is what I search for.  I also search from the lowest price to the highest.  Many times I will see similar items with vastly different pricing.  Why pay more for the same thing?  Especially when it is going to be used in a painting studio and has the potential to get paint on it.  

I have my larger pieces on a cart in my studio.  The items here came from all over the place, which is part of the secret to my success.  I'm always looking for props.  I look online, in thrift shops, retail shops, and my latest discovery, Amazon.  In this photo, two vases are vintage, the large vase in the middle is from The Enchanted Home Shop, the wine decanter was an engagement gift and the small vase in the back was $7.99 at the Whole Foods in Chelsea. 

So let's break this down a little bit.  I'm always popping my head into vintage or thrift shops to see if there is anything I can use.  You never know what will be available, so just pop in any time you have a chance.  Here in NYC we have Housing Works, Good Will, Junk and tons of thrift/vintage/antique shops as well as the flea market.  It helps to know what you are looking for before you go in so you don't get bogged down.  I look for vintage silver and blue and white porcelain.  I scan the shelves for those two items and if I don't see them I'm out and on to the next thing.  Also, if you have any friends who like to go thrifting or to garage sales, have them keep an eye out for things you may like.  

I mentioned that the vase in the middle was from The Enchanted Home shop.  The Enchanted Home is a design blog started by Tina, a lover of all things blue and white.  She had so many inquiries about items in her home, that she ended up starting a shop.  Though her items are new, they have that lovely vintage look about them.  These pieces are beautiful, so they go back and forth between my house and the studio.  

Both of these paintings feature porcelains from the shop.  If you keep an eye on The Enchanted Home website, you can get great deals when a new shipment arrives.  There is a pre-sale happening tomorrow morning and I will definitely be checking it out.  

Wedding/engagement/home gifts.  These are things I already owned that have made their way over to the studio.  I've been married long enough that they are in the vintage category at this point, so it made sense to use my own things rather than buying more stuff.  And it is not only my own cabinets that I raid.  I have many things that I have pilfered from my Mom's china cabinet as well.  

The candy dish and the embroidered napkin in the painting above came from my Mom's house.  If you have a still life painter in your life, nothing is safe!

I mentioned above that I got the small vase for $7.99 at the Chelsea Whole Foods.  I bring this up because you never know where you will find something you can use.  The small round vase as well as the cylinder above were bought when they were getting rid of some of their glass vases and I got these for a steal. I think the glass cylinder was round ten dollars.   Even if you don't use something right away, if the price is right, grab it.  If you paint as many still lives as I do, you need a large amount of props to rotate through out your paintings.  

Check out Amazon using the same search terms as mentioned for Ebay.  They have a nice selection of blue and white and the prices are good.

The other part of my still life set ups are the fabrics.  While we have a ton of fabric stores here in New York City, many of them are chaotic and require hunting through a ton of fabrics to find what you want.  That is not my thing at all.  I use muted red, gray and green backgrounds and I'm not interested in taking all day to find them.  I happened upon a store on Long Island, Carle Place Fabrics, where they have all their items displayed.  I was able to immediately point out to the sales woman what I wanted and have the fabrics cut into one yard pieces.  

Check out the local fabric shops in your town and don't forget about quilting shops.  They often have a good selection of fabrics at decent prices.

I hope this was helpful to any of you who are looking to start a still life prop collection.  The most important thing is to know what you want and always be on the lookout for it.  If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments.  I'm happy to expand further on anything mentioned here.  

* My usual caveat.  I paid for everything mentioned here.  I was not given any perks by the shops listed.  I just wanted to pass on all of my sources in case anyone here can use them.