On Wednesday morning bright and early, my little studio building arrived. I worried they might not be able to get down our driveway or through the gate, but all went well.
Still Need to Finish Interior
Inside is just bare floor and stud walls. The roof has radiant barrier inside, but all bare there, too.
It’s going to take me a while to get it all finished out, but the first thing I do need to do is to put in some flooring. It’s on the way. I placed an order for it today.
After that I’ll go ahead and start using the studio building as my workspace … well, scratch that because I’m already using it as workspace:
I’m working on drawings to accompany an article for NANPS’s Blazing Star. The topic is American Dittany (Cunila origanoides).
Too Hot
But it’s too hot right now during the daytime to be in there for long. Early mornings are fine, but by mid-day I’m sweating so much I’m afraid it’ll drip onto the paper.
So, any open studio days in summer are going to have to be in the early mornings or late evenings.
Plans for the Interior
Flooring
This is priority.
I’m on a strict budget, so it won’t be hardwood floors (which is what I’d love to have). Instead I went with a retro black and white look. I’ll show you how it turned out when I finish.
Walls
For a while, there won’t be any improvements to the walls. In the meantime I’ll use my grid panels to hang paintings. When I’m ready to put in the wiring or insulation, I’ll move things out of the way and work on it one wall at a time.
At this point, I’m undecided about what to use for the walls. If Rob has some of his projects finished by the time I get to them, I’d love to use some of our own cedar. But that’s a time-consuming plan because the trees have to be cut, milled, and then dried before he can put the tongue and groove on them.
I may decide to buy beadboard or something like that. To hang artwork I’ll get something worked out sooner or later. I’m undecided about that still too. There’s still a lot that needs to go into this studio building before it’s finished.
Solar on the Studio Building
Since I’ll have a solar panel on the roof to run a fan and lighting, the wiring for that may need to be installed before the insulation. And most likely the plumbing for the propane heater that is going in eventually, too. Then the insulation will go in the walls. Rob will help with those things, and I’m probably going to do one wall at a time.
Rainwater catchment.
There won’t be any plumbing for water inside. But I intend to put herb gardens and a shade garden with patio space behind the little studio building. So I want to put a gutter on the back end and catch the water in rain barrels. Or maybe I’ll put a 150 gallon tank on the hill behind the studio and run the water to that. I won’t need high pressure, just enough to get it from the tank to the hose.
When I do paint-making workshops I’ll need water for washing and cleaning tools. The creek is always across the driveway, too, and if there’s water in it we can use that for cleaning.
Eventually I’ll have a composting toilet outhouse, but that’s a ways down the road.
Steps, Gardens and Paths
You probably already know how much I love to use rocks for anything I can. So Rob has already been hauling good flat rocks that he’s finding over to the yard beside the studio so I’ll have them for later use.
It needs some steps at the door, and from the driveway to the level-ish spot before the door. I’ll use rocks for that. And I want a stone path from the parking area on the other side of the connex to the studio. So lots of rockwork in the future.
But in the Meantime, Here’s a Tour of my little Studio Building
When’s the Party?
Because it’s so hot now, I think I’ll wait until September to plan the ‘Grand Opening’ and throw a party.
I hope to enlist some other artists to come out and set up out here, too.
But I think the first Open Studio morning will be August 8. By then I should have the floors done and my panels set up to hang artwork. It’ll probably still be hot summer weather, though.
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Author/Artist Info
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In the summer of 2018 I began making watercolor paints from the rocks, clay, and other resources of our land here in the Ozarks. In 2023 I began experimenting with the same pigments in oils. I love this medium and now paint in oils almost always. I call them Wild Ozark Paleo Paints, because they’re made in a way very close to the same way paints were made when man first put a hand-print on the wall of a cave. I use very small amounts of outsourced pigment for blue, white, and sometimes yellow to offer a greater range of hues built upon the earthy local pigments. My specialty is painting nature, specifically the nature that surrounds me here in the remote hills of northwest Arkansas.
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Madison Woods
@wildozark (Instagram, Twitter, Threads and FB)
madison@wildozark.com
