What do watercolor painting and engineering have in common?

Top left, finished painting done with organized brushes.

They have a lot in common, I am discovering. My husband is an industrial engineer by training. He learned in his college courses how to make manufactoring and other business' more efficient.

Every now and then I ask him questions about how I can improve my painting using engineering ideas.

I am fed up with the time it takes to search through my office and car for my favorite brush when I want to be painting. Plus this year, I started teaching 4 classes a week in 4 different locations, so I must be able to find my art supplies, put together lessons, and arrive on the correct day at the correct time in a relatively presentable outfit.

I now am motivated to look at how I can improve my organizational skills. I am looking at everything that goes into my teaching and travel painting tours to see how and what I can do to create an efficient life so I don't sink into a vortex of papers, pens, brushes and triple appointments scheduled on the same day.

This morning I sorted out the tangle of brushes I had in my brush holder. I put the duplicate brushes somewhere else and only put the brushes I usually paint with into a sophisticated and very expensive DIY brush rack. You can see my brush rack in two views on the bottom row of the picture above. My husband tells me organizing your tools is an engineering concept, so I am reading his textbook, pictured above top right, to learn more engineering secrets I can share with you to make our painting easier for us.