Work Spaces Archives - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

Art Supply Organization – Vintage Inspired Art Supply Trays

January 6, 2019 by Ashley Hackshaw

Happy New Y ear! My art studio is usually in a state of chaos and, while I love this creative mess, this coming year I’m determined to make it a little easier to find things. This month’s challenge as a Michaels Maker was to organize my art studio. One of the first things I did was to make these vintage inspired art supply trays. I love that each tray is sturdy and that there isn’t a lid so I can easy sort and throw pastels and charcoal back into the right location. They also stack on my rolling cart and are easy labeled for access:

Here is what the top of my cart looked like before:

I used these unfinished basswood canvases from Michaels and turned them upside down to make them into trays:

To give them a vintage look I use a sponge to wipe a thin layer of stain on each one. This Rustoleum gel stain is easy to apply and doesn’t have the strong smell of a traditional stain. I used “Early American”:

To add the lettering I used Powerpoint to print off some lettering that I liked. This is an easy way to create a template if you don’t have a Cricut, Photoshop or other programs. I put transfer paper underneath (comes in white, blue and graphite) and traced my letters onto the side of each box:

A white paint pen was used to fill in the letters:

I love how they turned out. I often find myself spreading them all out over my art studio floor as I move from project to project:

I used the tiny little basswood trays inside the larger trays to keep different supplies corralled:

Now I need to make a few more!

I still have a few other studio projects I am working on to create a more functional art studio. What are you working on this January? I’d love to know! Are you wanting to get organized? From baskets to chalkboards to DIY – Michaels has everything you need to organize your home for the start of the new year!

Creating an Art Studio – My Basement Art Studio Transformation

February 13, 2018 by Ashley Hackshaw

A short history of creating an art studio:

Back in 2015 I shared this photo with the caption: One day this will be an art studio. Can you see it?

This was our creepy underground basement room that leaks and has gazillions of spiders. First, we fixed the leaks from the outside (it was a grading issue) and I blocked all the potential entry for bugs:

Painting the Walls White

I knew for the basement to be an inviting place I needed a blank slate so I caulked all the cracks and we painted the walls white with a stain blocking paint:

Adding a Wall Easel

I used to have a large standing easel and all I remember is how much room it seemed to take up. What I really wanted was an easel system on the back wall of the studio that could hold several canvases at once and could also be easily adjusted. The solution we came up with was a simple wall easel made from five 2×4’s and a small dowel. One horizontal 2×4 was bolted to the floor the rest of the 2x4s would lean vertically against wall. We used a drill press to add the holes to the vertical pieces so that pieces of dowel can be moved up and down making it completely adjustable:

I added a few other work tables and shelves and here’s what it looked like at the beginning of 2016:

At some point I hung up these deconstructed vintage mattress springs as bulletin boards:

A year later I still wasn’t doing much art in this room because it had become more of a storage room for my project supplies:

Storage Solutions

The solution to all the bins and boxes was to build a shelving rack in the other side of the studio. The rack just consist of six 2x4s and the bins slid right in:

I added a few other shelving racks near the easel too and all the sudden the studio was a little clearer:

It still didn’t feel right though. I couldn’t decide if I was just being a brat or if there was something off. I finally figured it out…it still felt like the basement storage room because of the gritty cement floor. My first way to fix that was to paint the floor white.

It didn’t take that long to paint. I should have done this a long time ago. Here’s a short time-lapse:

A post shared by Ashley Hackshaw (@lilblueboo) on Jul 19, 2017 at 11:15am PDT

Painting the floor suddenly made the room seem bigger, brighter and cheerier! It changed everything.

An Oversized Worktable

When I was in California I used to have two huge worktables and that was something I definitely missed but I wasn’t sure if the room was big enough for one. Brett had the idea to place a large piece of 4’x8′ styrofoam on the floor so I could test out the size before we actually built a worktable. I walked around it for a few days and decided it would be great:

Brett had some scrap wood laying around and so all we had to purchase was the finish-grade plywood for the top of the table. The best idea was the storage shelf:

I painted the top and the shelf below with the same paint I used for the floor:

Getting use out of the storage shelf:

The studio is always changing and will always be changing. I painted the door one day with art quotes just to spruce up this side of the room:

And I will forever be trying to perfect my organization:

Especially for my paint:

The most important thing for me as an artist is to be able to create and not have to clean everything up….I can just walk away from the mess and leave works in various stages of completion:

It’s definitely a space I love to be in now as you can see from all the artwork in various stages:

Art Studio Upgrades

It’s funny that the two major things that I consider upgrades are a 1950s heater and a TV. The basement stays around 60 degrees all year round except for when outside temperatures drop to the teens for a few days and my ancient old heater keeps me warm:

For Christmas I asked for TV and I got it! Sienna seems to spend more time with me in the studio now that I have Netflix:

Here are some studio scenes from the past few months….it’s fun to see how the art changes and what is in process:

Things rotate in and out:

An eclectic mix:

A floral streak:

Inspired landscapes:

I’d love to know what is your favorite thing about your creative space. If you could change anything what would it be? Feel free to share a link too to your own studio if you have pics!

One Year of Painting – 365 Paintings in 365 Days – A 365 Project

January 12, 2018 by Ashley Hackshaw

One Year of Painting – 365 Paintings in 365 Days

When I undertook one year of painting last January I wasn’t quite sure what would happen. Would I actually complete 365 paintings in 365 days? Would I complete two weeks or two months and then never paint again? That’s happened with things before. I ran a marathon in 2001 and then never had any desire to run again. True story. But this project was different…my passion for painting took over…and I finished every single painting every single day. There were little things I did along the way to help the process but really the most important thing was just committing to do art! The collage below has most of the paintings included…but some were left out because I couldn’t stand having an odd number in the monthly collages. You can click on the picture below (or click here) and a larger resolution will open:

I started out small in January and was doing small miniature paintings and more watercolors. Some paintings took a few hours and others took just a few minutes. I made a bag of travel paints (with small portable watercolors)n so that I could take them with me. I even painted while getting an oil change one day and ended up with a very curious audience!

In January I also started my other 365 project: one button or stitch a day…which is a much more manageable project if you want to start small. Click here for that entire post or the image below:

In February a few of my favorites were Harriet Tubman and Happy’s portrait. I also was painting more in my art journal:

March came along and I started painting some larger works. I also finished up my eclectic gallery wall for Michaels.

In April I tried to go with a theme for a week (birds) and that got boring really fast. I learned a lot about my painting process during the beginning months, things I’d forgotten. I have a wandering mind and I have to be working on all different kinds of mediums and subjects in order to stay interested!

In May I was doing more of the same but incorporating more layers into my works…something I hadn’t focused on since college and graduate school:

By June I was seeing my style loosen up quite a bit and I was incorporating more abstract techniques:

July was “Rock Month” and I was using all kinds of mediums. I was painting on rocks, leather, tin and paper:

Painting on rocks continued into August and I began painting more detailed landscapes too. It was a sad month though because Happy died so one of the rocks I painted was her little grave marker. That was my most liked photo on Instagram this year…I love how much everyone loved Happy.

By August I was working on several works simultaneously. Paintings often took more several days but I was committed to finishing “something” each time I left the studio. You can see most of the landscapes in more detail here:

In September I started painting even more animals. I also painted a bunch of rescue animals with proceeds going to Odd Man Inn and our local PAWS shelter.

More detail of the animal paintings here:

In October I started painting again on a much bigger scale. I also started doing some travel painting…taking my supplies along with me for a trip to Rockport and Gloucester.

In November I was just finishing up my dream tree for Michaels and decided to go with an art theme! I worked on mini paintings and paintbrush themed garland.

When December rolled around I couldn’t believe I only had a month left of the project! I began to move into more animals and pet portraits while still doing some abstract work. I used to paint in a very layered manner way back when and that started to come back with some mountain-inspired landscapes.

What I can tell you about this 365 project is that it consumed my entire year…but in a good way. When committing to do something every day (something that I love to do and want to get better at) growth is inevitable. I took about over ten years off from full time painting and it didn’t come back as quickly as I thought it would. The key was showing up every day to the canvas no matter what the outcome. I never knew what I was going to paint until I showed up. Here’s what I learned over the past 365 days: Creativity builds over time. It needs to be revisited daily in order to expand.

Every artist is different in what they need for their own practice. One of my biggest needs is a place where I can be messy and not have to clean up every day. I saw the biggest change in my creative practice when I painted my studio floor white and began to transform the studio into a space that worked for me. My workspace is in our once-creepy-basement and after I painted the floor white it felt a LOT less creepy and I found that I wanted to be down there more and more. Just look at this transformation:

A cold, creepy underground basement room that leaks and has gazillions of spiders:

A functional and comfortable art studio:

I’m putting together a longer post about the step-by-step transformation of the art studio so stay tuned for that!

P.S. So I started out posting all my paintings weekly but that became too daunting so I just started posting highlights. You can see all those posts here!

P.P.S. I’m still painting almost daily and posting on Instagram and in my Etsy store! Thank you so much for all the encouragement and support this past year!