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Note from the Atelier August 29, 2026 Hi There Reader... This week, we're heading a little further inside the Atelier. Turns out, making art involves a surprising amount of figuring out what to do with all the stuff you accumulate along the way. Scraps of painted paper too interesting to throw away. Marks you might want to use again. Ideas you want to try without actually committing to them. So this week's newsletter is devoted to two little systems I've created that are making my life in the studio considerably easier. Neither will change the course of art history. But both make me ridiculously happy. And really, isn't that reason enough? Cheers!

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A Fitting Room for Art

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Sometimes I look at a painting and know it needs something.

Unfortunately, knowing it needs something and knowing exactly what that something is are two entirely different things.

A while back, I saw artist Adele Sypesteyn using clear sheets to experiment with marks over her paintings. I loved the idea and, naturally, took it a step further.

I bought a package of clear acetate sheets and started making what I now call Try-On Marks. Circles. Lines. Scribbles. Shapes. Dark marks. Light marks. Different colors. Different tools. Basically, the kinds of things I might eventually add to one of my paintings.

Because the acetate is transparent, I can hold a Try-On Mark over a painting and see what it looks like before actually making the mark.

Does it need something dark in that corner? Try it on.

A few circles over here? Let's see.

Something red? Nope. Take it off.

It's essentially a fitting room for art.

And because apparently I can't simply have a pile of acetate sitting around, my Try-On Marks have become a Mark Stash. Each sheet lives in a page protector in a binder, organized by color and mark type.

Duh.

I've already found myself reaching for my stash when I get to that something-is-missing-but-I-don't-know-what stage of a painting.

Just today, I used it while working on a piece I am calling Regulars. I was trying to decide whether the piece needed a black mark or a light titan-buff-ish mark. And did it need lines or circles? Rather than crossing my fingers, hoping I picked correctly, I tried them on.

Black first. Then titan buff. Lines, then circles. Move it around. Try another. Take it away. Put the first one back.

Eventually, of course, I still have to decide. But until then, I can try on as many possibilities as I want.

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A Place for Everything?

I make a lot of my own collage paper.

Some of it is intentional: gelli prints, painted papers and other experiments. Some of it is decidedly less intentional. Used palette paper. Scratch paper covered with interesting (and sometimes not-so-interesting) marks. Even Amazon packing paper I've used to wipe excess paint from my brush can eventually make its way into a piece.

It all lived very nicely in a little file. Until the little file grew into a big file. And then into a great big, overstuffed file where it was nearly impossible to find anything.

I want to save those interesting scraps, but I also want to be able to find them again when I'm actually making something. A giant pile of collage paper may be full of possibilities, but it's not particularly helpful when I know I need just a little bit of red.

So, a few months ago, I bought a set of large, expandable plastic envelopes in different colors and decided to try sorting my collage papers by color.

Game changer.

Red papers go in the red envelope. Yellow in yellow. Blue in blue. You get the idea. I use the clear envelope for neutrals. At roughly 10 x 14 inches, they're large enough to hold almost anything I save, and because they're expandable, I can keep everything from full sheets to little scraps together.

I keep the whole set near my easel. Now, when a piece needs a bit of blue, I grab the blue envelope and start digging.

And yes, digging is still required. Let's not get carried away. I color-coded my collage papers. I did not alphabetize them. Puh-leeze! 😉

But here's the pay off.

While making Regulars, I was experimenting with abstract figures and needed to "dress" said figures. The "clothing" on the figure on the left started life as ordinary Amazon packing paper. I'd been using it to wipe paint from my brushes, liked what was happening on the paper and tossed it into my collage stash rather than throwing it away.

Eventually, there it was when I needed it.

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. And then buy plastic envelopes. Welp, I can't win them all.

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