How I choose items for Still Life set-ups (COVID edition)
On Sunday (May 31st) I’ll be on instagram live for another round of Studio Still Life Sessions. Just like last month’s session I’ll set up the still life on Saturday and take a few photos from a few different view points and upload them here. Feel free to work off these, or set up your own still life and work alongside everyone! All levels and disciplines of artists welcome!
If you’re interested in setting up your own still life (either Sunday or any other day!) - I thought I might share a little bit on how I go about finding the objects I use, during a time when I can’t exactly run out to our nearest thrift store or my favorite place, The Scrapbox.
Shopping my Basement
Even though we moved into this house almost 3 years ago, there are still a few plastic bins that are untouched in the basement. They still have the little sticker on them and everything. I like using these as places to start, because I’ve quite literally forgotten whats inside. It could be Christmas stuff (I KNOW there is a bin of plastic garland somewhere down there…) old sketchbooks, gardening tools… it’s an absolute toss up. I’ll pick a bin, commit to finding 2 -3 items and make those work.
Having someone else pick
This can be as simple as entrusting your still life to a family member or roommate, or as complicated as assigning numbers to a whole bunch of objects and letting someone (or random number generator online) pick what gets used. It all depends on how you want the final set up to look - people will tend to naturally choose items that look ‘nice’ together - so if you’re avoiding that, try the random aspect!
Think of a theme!
Themes can be handy when trying to create a still life. The more freedom you give yourself when picking objects, the less planned the table will look in the end. Choose a color and find things in your space that are that color, or shape, or texture; this can be a really neat way of examining certain truths behind surfaces and designs.
Curbside Treasures:
If you’ve got gloves and some time, consider checking your local ‘free’ item site, and see what’s being left out on the curb. I’ve found a few fun lamp bases and baskets that I’ve used in my setups a few times. I realize that this is slightly different in the time of a pandemic, so if you do go this route remember to wear gloves, sanitize the item and wear a mask if you think you’ll come into contact with people!
This is what I’m starting with - can anyone guess the theme?
Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!
New Workshop! Creating a Daily Art Practice: Sketching with Graphite
On February 12th I’ll be presenting a workshop at Literati (in partnership with the Ann Arbor Art Center) here in Ann Arbor on how using water-soluble graphite can help develop a daily process.
Together we’ll work on a few of the exercises I use and I’ll share some of the ways I work with the graphite.
Materials are included ( a handmade sketchbook and your own stick of graphite!) in the ticket price.
I’d love to see you there!
