For an artist of any medium, curating a space in which they can best create is a process. Everyone dreams of it – the ideal studio. Davinci studied the components of an ideal space extensively and his notes can be read in, The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, “If the sun is in the East and you look towards the West you will see everything in full light and totally without shadow because you see them from the same side as the sun: and if you look towards the South or North you will see all objects in light and shade, because you see both the side towards the sun and the side away from it; and if you look towards the coming of the sun all objects will show you their shaded side, because on that side the sun cannot fall upon them.” 

As most know, Jeffrey completed his four-year formal training at Atelier Lack. Grateful for any sort of space to set up an easel as a student, those years were spent in a small studio with east light. Once the sun stopped shining into the room, the space was well lit for the remainder of the afternoon. Jeffrey’s wife, Heidi, also studied at the Atelier and so naturally they re-arranged their small apartment to have a home studio; one just the right size that Heidi’s pallet, due to her short stature, would pass right underneath Jeffrey’s as they walked back and forth to their canvases. Once they realized it was time to get out of the cities where there were too many distractions and reasons to “not paint”, Jeffrey and Heidi began their search for a large space in the middle of nowhere. When they found the old 7,500 square feet cement block school in farmland WI, they were sure they had landed on their dream studio space. One of the classrooms was a 26’ x 20’ with a north facing wall, that once replaced with huge windows, would be the perfect space. Unfortunately, it was also the only room in the house with two radiators which during their first northern winter had to be their bedroom. During that time before they were able to renovate parts of the school (and add heat…), Jeffrey claimed two small rooms on either side of the school, one with south light, the science lab (to paint in throughout the afternoon) and one with west light (for the mornings). The science lab had glass-blocks for the window with scored lines in them which diffused the light enough to not cast shadows and only create a warm glow. No shadows that moved, just light that bounced all over. This was a great discovery and Jeffrey found he enjoyed working with this light so much that it will be a feature built into his new studio. 

Great Lakes Academy of Fine Art came into existence five years ago. This led Jeffrey to the decision to move his studio into the Academy so that he would be on the premises for the first 4 years to help establish the culture of the atelier and introduce the curriculum to the apprentices. He wanted to be sure expectations were instigated from the get-go and it has worked well. Now the academy is getting to the point where it runs itself with the older students helping the newer, allowing Jeffrey and Brock to come in a few times a week and offer focused critiques. The studio at the academy will now be rented to graduated students.

Jeffrey’s new studio will be 30’ x 40’; an extrapolation of what ended up being such an ideal space at the Cloverland studio/home. Basically, an elevated large open space to think and create, surrounded by woods. With large north-facing windows, it allows Jeffrey to paint all day in the same place, an aspect he found ideal from his Cloverland studio. He will have a small south-facing glass-block studio as well that will allow for steady and warm light that he can paint from all day. Jeffery finds it important to have a space for each light as the north light is cooler and south light is warmer, depending on what the painting calls for. As a delicious meal requires the best ingredients, a sense of light cannot be captured on canvas without a studio flooded with it. 

The space will allow for 4-5 still-life setups at any given time with different lighting conditions throughout the space, and an area for portraiture. From experience, Jeffrey is also building a massive, U-shaped desk in the middle of the space to be able to layout dozens of compositions, references, and notes while in the planning stage of a painting. 

The walls that don’t hold paintings will have large shelves with the hundreds of still-life objects that have caught his eye over the past 30 years, set up in tentative composition to be rearranged on the shelf until they work their way into an idea that ends up in a still-life. Of course, a couch and lounge area will be incorporated for family and guests.