{"id":628990,"date":"2026-05-07T14:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/628990\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T14:02:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:02:19","slug":"at-home-in-the-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/628990\/","title":{"rendered":"At Home in the Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Shan Bryan-Hanson in her gallery. File photo by Remy Carmichael.<\/p>\n

A tour of local artists\u2019 workspaces<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked in all kinds of spaces \u2013 small, large, home, garage, corner of kitchen and university studios,\u201d read an email from Shan Bryan-Hanson, who worked as a gallery curator and art instructor at St. Norbert College in DePere for nearly 20 years until the school cut back its art program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bryan-Hanson used this opportunity to open an art gallery and studio in the Fairfield Building in downtown Sturgeon Bay in May 2024, before closing it in October 2025 and moving her studio to a smaller space in her Sturgeon Bay home. Trying to paint while running a business and responding to customers didn\u2019t work for her, so she welcomed the venue change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not my first time in a small studio, and returning to one has reminded me that organization really makes a difference,\u201d she wrote in her illuminating Substack column, Artist Sanctuary<\/a>, which combines art insights with practical tips, such as organizing a small studio space.<\/p>\n

For example, Bryan-Hanson says magnetic hooks are a game-changer for organizing tubes of paint. She keeps them on her paint cart, which is on wheels, like most of the furniture in studios this writer visited.<\/p>\n

\"\"Painter Shan Bryan-Hanson hangs her supplies on magnetic hooks. Photo by Tom Groenfeldt.<\/p>\n

She also encourages students to find a space to work on their art, even if it\u2019s just a corner of a table or desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet rid of roadblocks,\u201d she said. \u201cRemove any obstacles. The biggest obstruction for most artists is the time it takes to set things up and put them away. Do what you can to make it work.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

A year working in a gallery-studio space open to the public made Bryan-Hanson realize she\u2019d rather work privately.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really prefer to be able to close myself off,\u201d she said. \u201cSome people thrive in one environment, some can handle both. Learn what works for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her studio in the Fairfield Building had huge north-facing windows, providing the muted light prized by painters through the ages. Marc Anderson, a landscape painter whose space is around the corner across Michigan Street on 2nd Avenue, occupies a former chiropractic and wellness center where he has constructed a studio with track lighting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are all on a dimmer switch, so I can pop it up or down, and they\u2019re all high-CRI [color rendering index, a measure of how accurately artificial light mimics daylight],\u201d Anderson said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a switch on them so you can [change] the temperature. It\u2019s taken some experimentation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He does like natural light. When he had a three-bedroom apartment above a bar in western Wisconsin to himself, any bedroom could have been a studio. But the living room had north-facing windows and overlooked downtown.<\/p>\n

\"\"Marc Anderson in the studio. Photo by Tom Groenfeldt.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bachelor in my 20s? Yeah, of course, I am going to make the living room this giant studio,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cThat was pretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, his plein air painting practice gives him plenty of natural light. Back in the studio, a large computer monitor sits next to his easel, displaying a photo of the Cave Point scene he was painting. Canisters of brushes occupied the edge of his palette. Most are half-inch or smaller, including a \u201ccalmer\u201d with different length bristles to create texture, \u201clike an old chewed up brush,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to have a wide variety of synthetic brushes of all different shapes and sizes.\u201d He keeps the chewed-up brushes, too.<\/p>\n

He is still adjusting to a new palette he built to replace a little end table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted something a little bigger and something with drawers,\u201d he said. \u201cThe problem is this palette is a little bit lighter than the one I had before, so it\u2019s harder to see the color that I\u2019m mixing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s easel is mounted on the wall, a trick he learned from another artist.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A collection of brushes in Marc Anderson\u2019s studio. Photo by Tom Groenfeldt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went home and built this because my last studio was a smaller room; floor space was at a premium,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve just grown accustomed to having that on the wall, and it\u2019s pretty flexible for whatever size you want to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Anderson keeps his space neat and orderly for his creative work, glass artist Laurel Grey believes in clutter \u2013 most of it highly organized so she can see her inventory. It includes driftwood pieces, treasures from area second-hand shops, paints, glass and colored ground glass beads.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe studio doesn\u2019t look particularly pretty because it\u2019s a real hodgepodge, but it\u2019s a working studio,\u201d Grey said.<\/p>\n

Her studio workshop is in the former Door County Economic Development Corporation business center next to Wulf Brothers on State Highway 42\/57, just south of the Bayview Bridge. The center was sold<\/a> to Lawe Street Sanctuary, LLC of Appleton, which has said it will continue to operate it as a multi-tenant building.<\/p>\n

Inside Grey\u2019s workshop are tables as large as 4 by 8 feet that she built herself, with wheels or glides so they can be moved around easily. Each has at least one fully stocked paper towel holder, and most have $10 magnetic bars from Harbor Freight screwed in place to hold tools. Wastebaskets are conveniently abundant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Inside Laurel Grey\u2019s studio. Photo by Tom Groenfeldt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe in not having to search and walk too far for everything when you\u2019re working,\u201d Grey said. \u201cI have scissors and paper towel holders at every station, and garbage cans everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of Grey\u2019s work tables have storm-door tops with fluorescent lights and diffusion, turning them into oversized light tables. A solid old dresser from the ReStore provides storage for her molds, and a cement-board top makes it a handy sideboard for her kiln.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her computer-programmable glass cutter turns out the intricate leaves she makes into dangling strings that scatter rays of light and respond to the slightest breeze. A pancake griddle provides fast, high heat when she wants to dry paint on glass and see if it needs to be painted and kiln-fired again.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cClamp House,\u201d multimedia art by Laurel Grey, made with wood clamps and glass. Submitted.<\/p>\n

Under the tables, large plastic bins hold some substantial driftwood pieces waiting to be used.<\/p>\n

\u201cI created space under the tables because I don\u2019t like too much being over my head,\u201d Grey said. \u201cI have had things fall on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plastic shoe hangers provide more storage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great way to organize, and you can see everything,\u201d Grey said.<\/p>\n

Shallow four-inch shelves holding paint and ground glass provide the same advantage \u2013 she can see what she has at a glance.<\/p>\n

With her supplies organized, Grey can come up with a concept and usually find the materials to make it happen \u2013 \u201cand, conversely, I\u2019m often able to generate ideas from stuff I have,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Graphic artist and printmaker Dale Vanden Houten would understand. In Two Bridges Gallery on 3rd Avenue, he has been puzzling over some 14-inch beams left over from a construction project at his Carlsville home. He\u2019s planning to affix some abstract design composed of several large letters he printed on his etching press, then cut out in little squares or rectangles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt becomes abstract because you lose the meaning of the letters, which is exactly the point,\u201d Vanden Houten said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s been looking at pieces of his design for several days, trying to make it work. Like Grey, he has his work tables on wheels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat way, no matter what I\u2019m doing \u2013 if I\u2019m working with large sheets of paper or large plates \u2013 I can move whatever tables I need around,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s really like quadrupling your space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in her studio behind the former S\u014cMI Gallery on 3rd Avenue, multidisciplinary Melissa Resch is creating items to sell at The Hardy Gallery. One popular item is a print of summer corn.<\/p>\n

\"\"Melissa Resch in the studio. Photo by Tom Groenfeldt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a long time to do the original because I did five layers of color on every single kernel,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the Hardy shop, Resch will be selling reproduction prints. The often-overlooked shop will also feature original merchandise from Liz Butler and Mary Blichmann, along with a rack of prints and works on paper from a variety of Door County artists.<\/p>\n

\"\"Collage elements scattered across Melissa Resch\u2019s studio. Photo by Tom Groenfeldt.<\/p>\n

Resch\u2019s studio holds materials for making collages, two sets of World Book Encyclopedias for additional imagery and a sewing machine to put the pieces together, plus multiple lamps awaiting creative new shades. Resch paints in the kitchen of her apartment, the only room without carpet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my front porch, I\u2019ve got my tools and all the wood that I\u2019ve collected,\u201d Resch said. \u201cAs soon as it\u2019s warm enough during the day, I\u2019ll go out and start working.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shan Bryan-Hanson in her gallery. File photo by Remy Carmichael. A tour of local artists\u2019 workspaces \u201cI\u2019ve worked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,272002],"class_list":["post-628990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-local-artists-workshops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}