What is your best cleaning strategy ? 

 Summer is in full swing and during June, July and now into August life has been filled with activities, people, surprises, work, earthquakes, smoke, volunteer activity and of course laughter and beauty. But it is one of the surprises that I want to share with you. My art studio has been in utter disarray since my art show in June and it was not until this past weekend that I finally had a chance to begin cleaning out and reorganizing all the mess. The question was where would I start and what should I tackle first? My strategy was to start with the least desirable, the endless paper stacks. Then I moved on to moving furniture, washing walls, sorting through hundreds of paint brushes, throwing out dried paint bottles and finally repainting the furniture. Below are some before and after photos for you to see the change. I was surprised that such a loathsome task could hold such a jewel of a surprise. Having an ordered and clean space lifted my spirits and actually brought new passion, vision and joy for creating art. In retrospect I was reminded that some of the best things about life are hidden in the rough areas of our daily messes.

I would love to hear your best strategies for big cleaning projects. You can leave a comment in the comment box below.

Before 

A larger art studio would be nice but I am sure the mess would also be larger.

After 

Shinny….mmm how long will this last?

Below are photos of a new abstract that came from all the cleaning and I can’t tell you how energized I was in creating this painting. Another surprise.

Close ups of the first layers being applied

 Oranges being dripped into the aqua and yellow

Purples and blues over the aqua and oranges. A total of 12 different layers of paint.

The finished piece, Jitterbug, 24 in x 36 in

I’m a happy painter.

Thanks for all your support and wherever you are enjoy the Dog Days of Summer.