On the easel

"Along with commissions and show paintings, I have a stack of paintings that I started at one time or another and had to put aside. But I held on to the canvases for whatever reason, knowing there was a good idea there, and wanting to take it further some day.

This is one of those paintings. I had it out this week on the easel, thinking what I would like to do with this next. I now paint on a different type of canvas (usually linen) and I may transfer this over to a new surface and start again. I am not that far into it, but even if I was, it's worth the time and effort to see the vision through to the end, the way I mean the painting to look.

This lovely woman is well worth painting, and I believe you will agree with me when you see the completed work."

- Elizabeth R. Whelan (artist on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts)

Some of my favorite studio accessories:

• Mahl stick to keep fingers out of wet paint
• Long metal rulers
• Rectangular palettes big and small, both wood and glass
• Table-top paper towel holder
• Rags from old flannel shirts
• Coated wire and sliding hooks to hang paintings to dry
• An easel that can move vertically and horizontally
• Multi-purpose utility tool to open tubes
• Putty scraper for clearing palette
• Paint tube roller to squeeze out paint
• White charcoal pencil for marking corrections
• Audiobook or streaming music
• Pot of strong coffee or tea
• A cat sleeping in the sunbeam (I am sure a dog would work just as well!)