In the Studio: Andie Dinkin

Where is your studio?
I usually paint in my home studio in Mid-Wilshire. I also have a space downtown at Mohilef Studios, where there’s an amazing community of artists, but I like to work alone. Since I use a lot of water, I used to think I couldn’t paint inside because it would ruin the floor. But when my husband and I lived in New York, I didn’t have anywhere else to go. We had a tiny little studio apartment, and I just put down a plastic tarp and some canvas. It worked. I realized then I could paint from home.

How do you set up your space?
My easel is on the right side of the room, and all my paintings are in the corner. I like to switch paintings when I feel like I’m overworking something. My desk is on the left side of the room, where I keep my materials and computer, and then I have a moving cart with paints and palette paper, which allows me to move around and step back while I paint. The painting I have in here now, on milk crates, is bigger than my typical paintings. It’s eight feet by four and a half feet, and for Keith Richards.

This interview appears in Issue 33 of Alta Journal.
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Dinkin at work in her home studio in Mid-Wilshire.

What materials do you use?
I make my own canvases. I get all my materials, including stretcher bars, from Blick on Beverly Boulevard. To paint, I use a combination of acrylic, gouache, pastel, inks, charcoal, and water. I also use clear gesso because I like to see the grain of the canvas.

What’s your daily routine?
I wake up, look at my phone, go on Instagram, and check my emails. If I’m in the mood to post my work, that’s sometimes when I’ll do it. Then I’ll go for a walk or water my plants, and after that, I’ll start painting. If I take a break, it’s to get coffee or go to hot yoga.

The drying canvas is a painting commissioned by Keith Richards.

How do you find inspiration?
Fellini movies. I also look on Pinterest for different images. Also, artist books. Recently, I bought Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers, Rachel Ruysch: Nature into Art—she’s a Dutch still life painter from the 1700s—and Movie Theaters, by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. I bought those books at OK on Third Street, but I also love Arcana in Culver City, the Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood, Bart’s Books in Ojai, and a bookstore in the Milwaukee Airport, where I pass through when visiting my family. Life magazine has an archive on Google, and I use that for character references.•