Take a look inside my studio
As an artist of some years experience, I’ve occupied many, many studios. I’ve rented a spare room in a piano teachers house, worked in a shed, taken over an empty office block, painted in my attic and had a space in a school...Now though, for the first time since I left art school, I’m using a building that was built specifically as a painting studio by an artist.
The studio building
My latest studio is part of a small complex of spaces leased out by the original owner-artists family. After the site passed to the current generation, they converted the various private workshops and studios into rentable space and now i’m one of five artists on site.
It was built in the 70’s as a painting studio and has large north facing windows which keeps the light constant and soft throughout the day. Yes, it gets pretty chilly in winter, but that’s par for the course for a painter, and I do have my thermals and gloves should I need them!
My messy, busy studio
Inside, it’s a simple room. I work on serval pieces at once, so it’s always full of work. The main wall has the current wet canvases on, with smaller pieces scattered about. I often paint on 6 or more large canvases at once and they develop together as I explore ideas.
Some pieces find their way to completion sooner than others; some might be in the studio for several years as I try and resolve them. I never know quite how It will work out.
I always have a lot of materials out and ready to use. Pots of brushes, oils and mediums ready to use. Rags, cloths and solvents for wiping brushes and cleaning up.
The white canvas
There is possibly nothing more exciting as a set of pristine white canvases on a studio wall. I take real care when building and priming the canvases so that I’m already invested in them before I even start painting. They may sit in the studio for a little while before I start work, just waiting for that first splash of colour.
Watercolours
I also paint in watercolour, creating abstract compositions that are derived from the larger oil paintings. This is a completely different process, as I work on a watercolour in one session, completing it in the course of a day or two.
I create the composition in just one layer of colour, rather than layering and editing as I do in oils. I still don’t draw the image first though, I have an idea in my minds eye, but love to let that evolve naturally as I lay one colour down and then choose the next.
Open Studios
If you’d like to visit for yourself, then I open my studio 2 or 3 times a year for open weekends. The final dates for 2023 are the 4th and 5th of November. Open weekends are a great way to see behind the scenes of an artists practice and there is always work available to buy direct from the studio too.
Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter so you get invites to all my open weekends and other events and exhibitions.
