New Watercolor Desk!

   I got a "new to me" watercolor desk! I have been working at a beautiful old drafting desk that came from the local vocational college that we refinished. The only problem is that it fit a full size sheet of watercolor paper but not my pallete and water and I don't want to make any additions to the desk. It's also pretty tall and a little harder to stand at and get a good view of my painting. I had found a BEAUTIFUL watercolor station that I was planning on buying until I learned that it would cost over $300 to ship it. So, I decided to take a trip to the local thrift stores to see what I could find.

    I found something that with simple additions would be perfect! It's an oak TV stand probably made to hold one of those older, large TVs. It definitely had a hard life and was in need of repair, but those where things that we could fix. My wonderful husband glued and nailed a few spots, put nice wheels on the bottom, changed the hinges, attached a paper towel holder on the side and a shelf for my palette. It has a shelf just below the top that is the perfect size for storage of full size sheets of watercolor paper. I'm planning on putting an extra shelf in that space to store finished paintings. It is also a great height to stand and paint at which is taller than the typical folding table. The price of the table and all the additions was still quiet a bit less than the shipping cost of the set up I had planned on buying. I'm really happy with it!

You can see the paper towel holder on the left side of the desk. The hair dryer is in a holder made for holding a drink bottle.

The pallete shelf is a piece of wood from a monitor shelf that my husband took off his computer desk. It's held up by shelf brackets. My old drafting table is behind my "new" desk. That nice chair was one of my wonderful thrift store finds also. I love thrift stores!

The shelf is the perfect size for full sized sheets of paper and there is lots of storage space behind the cabinet doors.

About Me!

   Art has been a part of my life in one way or another for as long as I can remember. I drew quite a lot as a child. I was encouraged by my parents who hung my art on the walls of our home. Some of my drawings and paintings are still hanging there. I studied the many Walter Foster art instruction books that my parents would buy me but my favorite book was a book my mother had a child called “Junior’s Fun to Draw”.  In fact, I still have that book!  I attended BYU-Idaho (Ricks College at the time) and majored in Art Illustration. After graduation I continued to learn everything I could about art through classes and books.

   

 Of all the mediums I have tried over the years, watercolor is the one that captured my heart. I love the feel of the paintbrush full of paint as I move it across the paper. It fascinates me how the water combines with the pigments to create passages of color with such exciting, interesting and sometimes textural results. I try to use all the exciting, unique and unpredictable things that watercolor can do to capture the simple, beautiful things of the world. I would like to say that I have some deep message that I want to put out to the world, but my real intent is to just create beautiful paintings of the things that make me happy. Seeing the way the light rests on the side of a house, the subtle colors within shadows, the bright sunlight burning through the foliage as the sun drops in the sky, and the beautiful shapes and colors that are all around me are just some of thing things that inspire me to paint. I am currently playing more with negative painting and portraying light in my paintings as well as keeping a sketchbook where I draw using a fountain pen and watercolors.