Hello, hello my creative friends!
This month I’d like to show you my studio.
Image by Annillart from Pixabay
When someone mentions an artist studio, straight away images of a beautiful light and airy room, with north facing windows and art materials neatly organized in shelves all around the walls spring to mind. Well, that’s not my studio, in fact, that is as far as one can get from my working space.
My mini-studio; this picture was taken when I was studying for the Certificate of Botanical Painting with the RBGE
My studio is what you can see in the image on the right. It’s a corner in my kitchen/dining room as close to the window as I could set it up. Far from ideal! However I wanted to share my working space set up because I have learned that there is one thing that is very important to start and maintain a creative practice; no, let me rephrase that, there one thing that is crucial to start and maintain a creative practice, and that is to have a dedicated space for it.
I know that in our modern flats, which get smaller and smaller all the time, it can be challenging to find that space, but it’s so, so important that can really make the difference between sketching or painting once in a while and sketching or painting everyday.
Imagine this: you get up on a Sunday morning and think “I’d like to do some painting today, I think I’ll do that”. Then you start thinking about your art materials, where did I save those brushes? and the paper? And what about that little cloth I use to dry the brushes? You start hunting down the items, you have to set up everything from scratch, possibly you need to clear a space first.
At this point you either spend an hour or so just setting up your workspace, and that’s an hour or so of creating gone; or you just give up before even starting.
Now picture this instead.
You have carved your workspace in a corner of your house or flat and set up all the essential tools you need there for your art (and they don’t have to be put away when you finish). Saturday evening (or any evening for that matter) you think you will have time the next morning to do some painting. You go to your workspace, set up you brushes, you paper, your little cloth, and even a jar with water (if you use watercolors). The next morning, after your coffee (or tea) you can just sit down at your desk (or MDF board on top of your sideboard) and paint!
Isn’t that just great? You have saved at least one hour of hunting down materials and setting up. And when you need to leave (to have breakfast or look at your children’s latest Lego creation) you can just leave everything as it is and come back to it later.
Sketching for my pattern design.
Having a space like this, that I could call my own studio/workspace, has improved my creative practice 100-fold! It just makes it so easy! I can start a sketch or painting and then leave everything as they are, come back later and pick up from where I left.
So here is a challenge for you. Find a space in your home or flat (remember I live in very small flat so if I did it so can you) and set up your studio there. Then post a picture of it on Instagram tagging me @katia_galante_art so that I can see your workspace and we can all inspire each other!
And if you have any advise on how to maximize a small space to make a studio, please leave a comment here.
I can’t wait to see your beautiful pictures 😊
Till next time
Create and be happy!