What Happens in My Studio on the Second Saturday: An Open Invitation
Every second Saturday of the month, I open my studio at the ArtsXchange in St. Petersburg and let anyone walk through.
No ticket. No appointment. No obligation. No velvet rope, no gallery assistant with a clipboard, no sense that you need to know anything about art or have any intention of buying to deserve to be there.
Over 210 people come every month. And every month, something happens in that studio that I cannot reproduce online, in a newsletter, or in any photograph I take of the work.
I want to tell you what that something is — and why I think coming to open studio might be the most useful thing you can do if you are curious about collecting original art.
What you will find when you walk in
The first thing most people notice is the scale. Work that reads as medium-sized on a screen is often much larger in person — and in a good way. A 36x24 inch panel takes up real estate on a wall. A 40x30 inch piece commands a room. You cannot understand what that means until you are standing in front of it.
The second thing is the texture. My work is built in layers — cement as a ground, liquid inks pooled and lifted and dried, 23k gold leaf applied by hand, white ink drawn over the surface in lines that map the movement of conversation. In a photograph, you see color and composition. In person, you see a surface that has physical depth and weight. You can see the decisions. You can see where the work changed direction and where it held its course.
The third thing — and this is the one that surprises people most — is how different the newest work is from what you have seen online.
Most of what is on the walls will never be listed anywhere
This is the part I want to be honest about.
The newest pieces — the ones I finished that week, the ones I am most excited about, the work that represents where my practice is right now — come to the studio walls before they go anywhere else. Some of them will be listed on my website or on Artsy after open studio. Some of them will sell that day and never be listed at all.
I do not hold work back strategically. It is simply the reality of how original work moves. When a piece is done, it goes on the wall. The people who are in the room see it first. If it sells in the room, it never needs to be photographed and listed and shipped — it goes straight from the studio to someone's home.
Over the years, I have had dozens of collectors tell me that the piece they love most in their collection is one they bought at open studio — something they had never seen online, something that did not exist as a listing anywhere. They were just in the room.
That availability is real, and it matters. If you want access to the fullest possible range of what I am making, open studio is where that access lives.
What to expect when you arrive
The ArtsXchange is an artist community at 515 22nd Street South in St. Petersburg. My studio is number 109. You walk in through the main entrance, find Studio 109, and you are there.
Some people arrive early and are first to see everything on the walls. Some people come mid-evening when the studio is full of other visitors and the energy is different — louder, more social, more like what you might expect at an opening. Some people come in the later on when things have quieted down and there is more time to talk.
All of those are legitimate ways to experience it. There is no wrong time.
When you arrive, the work is on the walls. I am there. If you want to talk — about a specific piece, about the process, about what something is made of, about whether it will work on your wall — I am genuinely happy to have that conversation. If you want to just look, that is completely fine too. Some of the best responses I get from visitors are from people who barely say a word, just stand in front of something for a long time.
You can bring someone. You can bring your phone and take photos to think about later. You can measure a piece if you want to see how it would fit your space. You can come once and never come back. You can come every month for years.
All of it is welcome.
What happens when something stops you
Docents from the Musuem of Fine Art St. Pete hanging out in the studio. Photo by Jenipher Chandley.
If there is a piece on the wall that you cannot stop looking at — if you keep coming back to it, if you find yourself calculating whether it would fit the living room wall, if you pick it up and feel the weight of it in your hands — that is worth paying attention to.
That is the beginning of collecting. Not the research, not the price comparison, not the validation from someone else. The moment a specific object in front of you produces a specific feeling in you — that is what you are chasing, and you have found it.
At that point, we talk. I will tell you everything about the piece. What it is made of, how it was made, what series it belongs to, how it will look on a white wall versus a colored one, how it ships, what the paperwork looks like, whether there is anything else in a similar vein that you should see before you decide.
And if you are not ready to decide that day, that is fine too. You can put a piece on hold with a deposit while you think. You can ask me to let you know if anything similar comes out of the studio. You can come back next month.
The only thing I ask is that if a piece has genuinely stopped you, you take that seriously. The pieces that stop people rarely wait long.
For interior designers and trade professionals
Open studio is a particularly useful resource for design professionals sourcing art for client projects. You can see work at scale, in person, without scheduling a formal presentation. You can bring a client. You can bring photos of the space you are working on and hold pieces up against the wall to get a sense of color and scale relationships.
I have a trade program for design professionals that includes a 15% discount on all originals, private studio previews by appointment, commission services, and early access to new inventory. If you are a designer and you want to register, email hello@glenyse.com and I will send you the details.
An open invitation
I have been doing open studio every second Saturday for years, and I intend to keep doing it for as long as I am making work.
It is not a marketing strategy. It is how I prefer to be in relationship with the people who love what I make. Art is better when it is in conversation — when the people who live with it know something about where it came from and who made it. Open studio is how I keep that conversation alive.
Come on the second Saturday. See what is on the walls. Stay as long as you want.
If you want to be notified before each open studio with a preview of what will be on the walls, subscribe to my email list at glenyse.com. If you cannot make it on a Saturday and would like a private visit, email hello@glenyse.com.
Browse available art, giclée's at glenyse.com/original-art. Open studio takes place every second Saturday of the month at the ArtsXchange, 515 22nd Street South, Studio 109, St. Petersburg, FL. To get on the advance new-work list, subscribe at glenyse.com. or contact hello@glenyse.com to discuss a commission made specifically for your space. For direct inquiries, 312-725-6066.
Glenyse Thompson is a Florida-based contemporary abstract artist whose work has been featured in Designer Today, Aspire Home and Design, Architectural Digest, Southern Living, Town and Country, Design Milk, and Martha Stewart and placed in private collections and commercial spaces nationally and worldwide. She enjoys commissioning art for collectors, exhibiting art, working with brands and interior designers, and collaborating with companies on licensing opportunities.