(Sorry, just saw this - haven’t been paying attention to DPW for a while, but I’m back now!) Hi Patricia, no I don’t have casters on my stool…I’m on carpet, or rather a drop cloth over carpet, so, it’s probably just as well. It’s one of those ones from Ikea that is black painted wood and the height adjusts by swiveling. It goes up pretty high and I am not the tallest of people, so it works for me. Hmm, I wonder how that would be with casters, I suspect the ones that roll don’t adjust up so high, maybe because people like me would absent mindedly fall off them from time to time??
Painting is an action sport! I always stand…I’m usually working on a number of pieces at once; background, marking, layers.
I always sit, I have bad arthritis, I get into too much pain from standing more than a few minutes. I do stand and stretch often, take breaks from the painting and come back to check it out.
Also standing now. I do a lot of plein airs now, standing means better visibility. Also when I used to sit before, my paintings were more detailed, also had back pain issues. Now, standing helps to work from distance, with more arm involved, also less back issues and seems like I feel less tired.
I sit and after painting my back, my neck and my eyes are dead.
I use Christine’s approach as well, I use both.
I’m 72 yrs old and standing for long periods does get tiring…mixing it up, depending on what I’m actually doing seems to work.
last night I was imagining some kind of electronic bar stool that you could adjust the height and left and right movement on…also mounted on a track so you could reverse away from the painting to get the overall perspective.
I prefer larger formats.
I injured my back some years ago so I use a wheelchair to get around and to paint in. Stand if you can, sit if you need to, but whichever you do, you should definitely back up frequently while you’re painting to better see the painting as a whole. It’s easy enough for me to roll back and forth frequently (after checking under the wheels for those crazy kittens), but it’s also so easy to zone in on one spot and forget to move for a while. I always see something from a little distance that I missed up close. I take breaks every so often and go out on the deck and stand leaning against the railings. It’s good to get some fresh air.
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I mostly paint plein air , but I like standing for all my painting, out doors or studio. I feel I have more control .
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I like to stand because I back up often to view the painting at a distance. That said, when I need to paint detail, I do sit. Or if I get tired! LOL