Not sure if ‘Jasmine Cottage’ will be the official name of my ‘new’ studio …but its a good one to start with considering the entire building is almost completely taken over with climbing jasmine.  And its just a matter of days, literally, before every single bud (and I’m talking thousands if not millions – you can see them if you look really close) will burst into bloom!  Have you ever smelled jasmine?  Its deliciously sweet.

I planted them years ago with the hopes that one day they would completely hide the building and this may be the year that happens – the entire roof is almost covered!

Here’s a picture of the inside of the studio…sorry its kind of a mess – but after moving more of my art supplies in (I’d initially only occupied half of the space but now have the entire space) I couldn’t wait to get started – I forgot to take any ‘before’ images – but maybe you can get an idea.  It has a nice wide door for a nice view with lots of light and, so far, I’ve been able to work with the door open even though the temps have been in the upper 80s here already.  The only problem with keeping the door open is…we have a small problem with mosquitoes around here and wasps!  BUT, I hung  mosquito netting as a  ‘curtain’ over the opening and that seems to be working quite well so far.  I do realize the days are numbered before I will have to resort to closing the door and turning on the air conditioning, but for now I’m taking advantage of the nice weather while I can.

And since the space is bigger, I’ve decided to start working bigger too!

Here’s a recent one – an encaustic – no name yet – but its 16×16.

I’m inspired to go even bigger and just placed an order for 24×24 and 30×30 panels…I’ll keep you posted!