New Studio
 

I just secured this old church for a studio. It will require some work inside but it should work out nicely. I've been wanting to do some very large pieces and this will certainly allow for that. I'll post the new shots of the place as it progresses. It rather makes me nervous to be honest.

The main room has a sloped (stage) floor which will be one of the first things to address. There have been some new upgrades recently which help.-Tim

Tim--

FAN-TASTIC.

Know you'll have a great time there!

Best--TE

Tim, wow, I dream about finding that sort of space/sanctuary. Keep us posted on what you end up doing on the interior.

Before
 

I'm shooting "before" pictures and will post these next to the "after" pictures. Lincoln called the Whitehouse a shop, so I figure a studio can be a shop. This place is too big to make perfect. It will always look worked in I'm sure. It's got central air and new bathrooms (a church was meeting there until recently)


I'm also already looking forward to making 2 or 3 large oils and want to get on them quickly.

Anybody want to buy 32 large oak pews? Just kidding.

WOW! A church! WOW!

Tim, you need a new shiny Mahogony Barclay easel to pray at each day!

That is going to be a cool studio for sure. :)

Easel
 

Michael, I am coveting my neighbor's easel. I must not do this in church. I really want one and his taboret project is of interest too. That easel is something to work toward. If I buy one then what would I dream about?

Tim, with such an insprational setting you need a congregation. Let us know when we can all come and get inspried.

This looks like a fun project and I can't wait to see the "after" photos. "Wow" is right, you hit the jackpot!

WOW
 

You may have some angelic guidance! Lucky you!
How did you get a church? Looks great!

Linda

Boys
 

Linda, a friend had it. We had just told one of our sons about it, when the other walked in and overheard the first one talking about it-he only heard;"...we have a church" the second asked (very puzzled) "we have a church?". He didn't know we were even looking I guess.

Unique
 

Tim,

I can imagine your son's surprise!
You'll have a pretty unique place to paint, and I'm sure plenty of divine inspiration. It just looks really neat. I'd love to see more. Where is it?

Linda

Linda, this is in my small town. Our little town is like 100,000 others in the US.....lots of old buildings wanting to be used. The main room on the left (in the picture) is 30X50 with 30 ft ceilings. I'm jazzed!

Tim I not only want to sing in the choir, I want to rent some space. I am so jealous!

I know someone you could unload the pews too for production of a few hundred brush holders! :)

Beth, you would welcome in any choir...man can you sing!

Sa-weet
 

Timothy,
Congratulations on the place. Our town has the North Jersey Art Center which is also a converted church. It's broken up into gallery space, workshop space in the basement and first floor dividing children and adult classes, and a small discussion area. Do you have any intentions on doing anything similar, based on your needs first of course!? I saw on your website that you do workshops, and wondered if doing it on a regular basis close to home was something you considered. Kinda like Daniel Greene's workshops.
BTW, I'm jealous too. Good luck.

Tim,

If jealousy is one of the deadly sins, all of us on the Forum are in deep trouble. Congratulations!

And double WOW WOW Tim with the church and all. That sure is everyones dream to have such an inspirational space. Keep us posted on the any progress or ideas. I have just been looking the last couple of days locally myself for something.

Congrats and paint away.

Patt

Workshops etc?
 

I have been asked by several artists about workshops in this new place. It is better for that than many places I actually have held workshops in. The main room is 30X50 with high ceilings so we could get 15 painters in there and everyone would have tons of room. We could have 4 or 5 models. I may try that next year. I could do all the ads etc. myself-which appeals. I'll sure let you know Jimmie. A friend of mine did that on his own and got 34 students!

As to rooms etc. My work goes out so fast (to clients, shows, galleries) that I don't think I'll do a gallery. In my town it would mostly be only a distraction to my work. I'm sure there will a "discussion area". I'll be able to do woodworking, crating and framing well part from the painting area for the first time ever.

Wow!!! This is soooo awesome! Major congrats Tim!!!

Oh... I can just imagine "Long Island" ice teas in the confessionals while the tunes of "Gladiatior", gently meander down the spiral staircase of the choir loft as the chorus in their "Laffel" green robes proccess to the solo descant of Sarah Brightman's version of Madame Butterfly - all the while a mad artist is wildly painting copper pots throughout the sacrasity. And their in the front pew is - Bill Clinton. Tim, Tim, Tim....

Gallery
 

Tim,

Everything in your plans sounds great and I'm sure you'll do well. I was actually thinking of displaying other people's work along with yours.

Whatever theme you feel like doing, make an open call, and set up a show for a couple months at a time. I hope I don't sound too naive bringing this up, but you could make commission off other artists. The center in our town has a separate gallery, no bigger than 15x30 and if needed, blocked off from the rest of the place. They only like to show student's or past student's work, and they do no advertising whatsoever.

Like I said, maybe I'm sounding naive or even borderline dumb, if so, just say it in a nice way.

I just dislike the idea of being open to the public. I will have some wonderful artist/friends ask about about working in there with me but even this sounds like a distraction. They may not like Sarah B. then where would we be? Beth's vision sounds close to perfect.

I'm still trying to figure out how to use the pews. Maybe a slogon is born, "Use the Pews!" I can sell shirts to other actual functioning churches. Interior shots soon.

This is the interior part that needs the least work. The floor slopes-kind of interesting- that.

My sons and I are cleaning-building to come later. I'll post as that goes along.

Good Luck Tim, I think your photo of the inside of the church is great. It looks like a wonderful studio site.It actually looks better than I thought.

I am relating to you in a small way. Presently I am looking into a small place in a nearby small town.It is in the same area of the 4-star Greenbrier Resort which is very upscale. This tiny town is nearly a ghost town (matter of speaking) but now, there are very high end homes being erected (sold already) another huge golf course and country club. I am hoping that I am making a right move.My hopes are to gain exposure so I can attract highter end work.At the moment I am near my home and not on a main highway to be reached easily.The public does not know where I am.

Unfortunately, I do not feel that I can sell art alone so I need to carry other "art" items on consignment, etc. I fear that I am not going to have time to paint with running a full time business but hope this will lead to better commissions for portraits or other paintings.My hubby may be able to fill in now and then. He is not extremely excited about the idea though.Too risky but I feel the need to try something instead of just hope for more with no action on my part.My rent is going to be real cheap as I am doing most of the clean up, painting, floors, etc. myself.And I don't mean hiring it done.Good old elbow grease.

Need some positive feedback here.

Good Luck to you as I know you will do fine.
Patt

Patt,

The Greenbrier sounds like a resort in PA near where I did a workshop. That is helpful to you - very helpful, becuase you get the right kind of wealthy people, that is, those who appreciate the finer things. I would feel differently about retail, etc. here, were that the case. It is still a distraction but perhaps if the market is lively enough you can hire people for that. I owned a gallery briefly and had art students offering to work for free.

I think I'll do a workshop next year in this place. My students in Fayetteville are going to come over for dinner and a tour.

:)
Thanks Tim, I feel uplifted hearing that. I hope you are right. I am very rural here too and feel this need to be out in the public eye more. I can lock myself in my studio and not see anyone sometimes and it is perfectly fine( that artist syndrome).

I think your space and ideas are going to be fine. The workshop idea is also a great idea. My space is not anything as grand as yours but I have grand ideas as I am very handy with decorating ideas, wall colors and mood. At least I hope so if I can only take what is in my head and make it happen.And make others feel it too.

Thanks again for the upbeat words.
Patt

I can just imagine a line of divine easels coming from all those oak pews. :)

Tim you did a workshop at the "Greenbrier"? Jeeze you and Julia Child!

As we say around here "back when we had money", it is a touch of heaven on earth! But is in WVA, not PA so maybe it wasn't the same. Three golf courses, about $840 a night for a two room suite, great peaches.

They exposed the "bunker" for Congress that has been hidden there since WWII. I think they said it could sleep and feed 3500 for 45 days. Now that I know Patt and Edith from sharing the Hyatt West at Greensboro College, I think they really built it to lock the two of them up! :)

No, Beth, the one I did was in the woods in PA NEAR Nemacolin Resort.

The workshop was actually a very rustic affair, which my family loved. I had to work from 6:00am till 4:45 each day and enjoyed it less than they.

This is a shot of the light rack going up. But that's not all! You can pull an engine with it. You can storm a castle with it! (I'll post new stuff as the projects roll along.)

Party
 

Here are some pics from a recent studio party, my students from the Walton Center workshop (including Kim) and their spouses came over to see the works in progress.

Tim, what kind of bulbs will you use in your "castle seige engine" light rack?

Mixed
 

Michele, they are mixed because I'm cheap and not a strict purist. I have the expensive 5500K ones, 5000k and some closer to 4,000k -eight four foot ones total with an optional halogen.