Painting at Night: Gerardo Rosales on Studio Life in Houston

Painter Gerardo Rosales has spent two years working in a Houston studio complex that holds more than 300 studios. He is the latest subject of A View From the Easel, Hyperallergic's long-running series in which artists reflect on their workspaces, now in its 360th installment.

Rosales paints late into the night, accompanied by Chaka Khan, Caetano Veloso and Gregorian chants. Between brushstrokes, he listens to audiobooks: he recently finished Reinaldo Arenas's Before Night Falls and is now listening to James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room.

How does a studio shape the work?

Rosales says his current space changed the physical scale of his art. From 2000 to 2015 he had no dedicated studio and worked from his living room. He produced mainly drawings and small-scale paintings, along with works he could assemble in a gallery into large installations.

Around 2016, he gained access to bigger spaces. "My work was significantly impacted by this," he said. He began producing large paintings, some as big as 96 by 120 inches, and later moved on to large-scale wall paintings.

His two studios serve different functions. At home he draws and sketches, especially on his computer. The dedicated studio hosts larger works and anything involving heavy paint, "where I don't feel like I need to be careful about making a mess."

What does the space offer?

Rosales values the studio's light and its tall walls. "This allows me to expand my ideas into large-scale works, and also to play with the space and create installations throughout the studio," he said. The location gives him easy access to art supply stores and coffee shops.

Night is his preferred time there. "It is quieter and my work flows better," he said.

He keeps no set schedule. Some days he works long hours, including late at night. Other days he simply goes to look at the work in progress and think about it.

Is 300 studios a community?

The complex may house hundreds of artists, but Rosales works independently. "I don't feel part of an art community where I am at the moment," he said. He meets artist friends in the city occasionally to talk about art, their work, and life in general.

He wishes the studio were more affordable and sat within a smaller community of like-minded individuals. He also wants more contact with artists from different disciplines, "so we could collaborate, exchange knowledge, and learn from one another."

What about materials and museums?

Rosales names no favorite material. He chooses what fits each project. "I often say that my favorite material is the next one, the one I haven't worked with yet," he said.

He likewise declines to name a favorite local museum, enjoying several Houston institutions for different reasons.

For Rosales, the trajectory from living-room drawings to 96-by-120-inch canvases shows what a room of one's own can do. His wish list — affordability, community, cross-disciplinary exchange — points to what Houston's studio complexes still owe their tenants.