A Place to Paint

I remember my first studio; It was a very small, second bedroom in my first ever flat, that was so cramped I’m still amazed at how prolific I was able to be, squashed into it such as I was . You couldn’t swing a mouse in it. My second studio was purpose-built by my father, who converted the loft space in the first house that I bought. My third studio, when we moved to another house, saw me back in a second bedroom, a little bigger than the first, with a great view down the Amber Valley… but still a second bedroom, where I painted, cut mounts and made frames (there were always lengths of mouldings on the stairs). Spare rooms became the norm for several incarnations in my life , until I had another purpose-built space (again by my father, who, being a draftsman by trade was good with things like that), which was basically a very large shed in the garden.

Life brings about many surprises. Who’d have thought that I would end up in North Yorkshire, where I opened my first and only gallery, in Hawes, Wensleydale. This was also a studio where I worked seven days a week, which I ran for 3 years until finally settling in Askrigg and then Richmond.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, I currently find myself between studios. We’ve just moved again, and the loft – which will be my new working space – is awaiting a fixed staircase to access it. Frustratingly, this may be delayed because we’d just discovered that our roof leaks rather badly. As a result, I find myself creatively displaced and once again working from a spare room, which isn’t ideal… but it is ‘my space’ nevertheless.

The other reason I mention all this is because it gives me an opportunity to discuss working spaces, and the value of having somewhere to paint that is entirely dedicated to your art.

For many folks, working on the kitchen table is their only available, practical place to paint. There’s nothing wrong with that, unless your valuable painting time is constantly accompanied by the low-level anxiety of knowing that the table will need to be cleared in an hour or so to serve dinner. The whole process of setting up your gear and clearing up afterwards can be something of a creative killer in some circumstances.

If it is possible to purloin a whole room and dedicate it to your painting passion, then that’s probably the ideal. It can be a spare room, conservatory or a shed in the garden; the precise nature or dimensions of that space isn’t important. Likewise, if such a space simply isn’t available to you, then try to bag yourself a corner somewhere in the house that can thereafter be designated sacred ground.

In my opinion, one of the greatest benefits of having a dedicated space, whatever the size or location, is that you can walk away from it at any time, and return to it on a whim, knowing that the piece of work you’ve been labouring over will be exactly as you left it. Art is like that; its important to walk away from it because that way you can keep monitoring it with a fresh eye. Likewise, works-in-progress have a habit of nagging at you, and being able to drop whatever you are doing, or go to it at three o’clock in the morning and correct, or implement, the thing that’s been bugging you is a very precious thing.

Wherever you paint, and in whatever circumstances, never underestimate the value of your working space – it can make a huge difference to your satisfaction, and your results…

Your starter for ten: whose studio was this?….

… Francis Bacon

… and I thought my studio was untidy!