The World's Crappiest Studio?

I’m not a professional artist (yet).  My family’s home is a modest 1950’s bungalow somewhere in the suburban spread on the island of Montreal:  certainly not the bohemian funky neighbourhood loft of a beatnik groove-poet or paint-pusher.   It’s the home of an IT Business Analyst and, as a general rule; IT Business Analysts don’t need studio space.  As such, I have to carve out a space and time that I can paint in and I have to work around the limitations that this imposes.  Subsequently I paint in the evenings in the basement.  There is no, I repeat no, natural light.  I was wondering how many extra-curricular artists are out there, forging their craft in any number of less than ideal locales, just because they love to do what they do.  I thought it might be fun to share with the world some of the tools of my trade.  Who knows: maybe it will help someone.  Maybe someone will post a killer tip for me….

• Plein-air kit indoors.  As my space is more often a basement living space than a studio I need transportable gear, so I have a collapsible light-weight easel, and a carry case for pretty much everything else.
• Floor standing daylight lamp.  If there’s no natural light then manmade will have to do.  Nothing fancy here, just a 3-bulb lamp and regular daylight bulbs.  Works for me!
• Drop cloths.  I have pretty bad “palette discipline” (maybe I’ll go into that in a future post) and I get almost as much paint on me as on the canvas.  The drop cloths have saved me thousands in cleaning costs.
• Apple TV.  Bet you weren’t expecting this one.  I paint in front of the TV.  My Apple TV hooks my TV up with iTunes on my PC.  This means I can display photos on my TV and guess where I get my subject matter for painting…..that’s right: digital photos.  The Apple TV also lets me stream my music to the TV which makes it even more useful.
• Bonus: Photoshop and a DSLR camera.  OK, so not really part of the studio, but PS is beyond outstanding as a post-painting aid.  I can take a photo of my latest work in the man-made light of the basement and Photoshop it into the actual colours and contrast you’d see in the daylight.

One day I hope to emerge from the subterranean gloom…