my studio

Hi, I am Cynthia Mooney, and here is my studio which I have named "Hidden Nest Studio" because it is tucked away at the far corner

of my garden, back behind our garage. I am lucky to have a room of my own. As Virginia Wolfe said "every woman needs a room of her own, even it is outside the house" or something to that effect. I agree, and was much happier when I got to build my own studio. My son and I designed it, using mostly recycled or reclaimed materials and he built it, designing as we went along. The door handle came from a trip to Bali, after I saw these graceful hands on the doors there.

The windows face onto a small park, so there is always a lot of activity going on outside my studio. Sometimes there is a full blown birthday party, or perhaps just a gaggle of children playing make believe.

I love lanterns, so the ceiling is hung with lanterns from various parts of the world.I also have a huge butterfly kite on the ceiling.

I work with ribbons and fabric and fibers in a variety of ways, especially when binding my watercolor journals. That is one thing that I do not work on in the nest, however. I love that this is a space where I can do messy art and no one minds.

I love the cozy charm of my studio, but because of its' limited space  (8ft x15 ft) I have to keep things pretty contained, which is not my strong suit. I spend a lot of time organizing and reorganizing, which is often a pleasure in itself. I love being there in the summer experimenting with something new and listening to the activity in the park.

My dream studio would probably be twice as wide, with a bit more storage and room for painting on larger canvases. I am pretty happy in the nest, though, and just have to get out there more often!

Sketching in the Garden

 Several of us met yesterday at The Grotto in NE Portland for a little sketching. Tory and Suzanne went up the elevator to take some photos.  I sat in the sun and did this little sketch of a shaded path into the woods. We're planning to meet on a regular basis and explore other interesting locations around our city.

Boat Bliss

The Portland Art Collective held their annual Boat Party aboard RAPTURE on Monday evening. There was lots of art-making, eating, visiting, and laughing.

To see more photos of the evening, check out Dayna's blog post by clicking HERE.

Playing with Poultry by Lenall Siebenaler

I've been working on a mixed media series using roosters and chickens.  All three of these were started when I offered to clean out a messy watercolor palette at a recent PAC play day at Collage.  The artist said she couldn't paint as her palette was too messy.  I cleaned it taking very little paint while doing so and here is the result.  Strange beginning?  Yes.  There are so many people who now have chickens in their backyard.  It's quite remarkable. 

Cluck, Cluck

Cock-a-Doodle

Cocky