The Importance of a Studio for Artists to Paint

'Safe Passage,' Work in Progress, 93 x 78 cm, acrylic on canvas

There have been times in my life (notably during my 14 years in Cyprus) when I had a studio, and times when, as recently, I've been working in my large living room-kitchen area. While I was still able to get work done, even large scale canvases, it is simply not the same as having your art reference around you and a space where you can leave things set up permanently and can walk straight in to a particular 'mind set.'

'Night Roads,' acrylic on rough watercolour paper, small

 At the moment I'm totally re-organising my flat and making my mother's bedroom into a studio. Some great shelving units are helping me to archive and organise canvases, and freeing up floor space. The process of going through older work and evaluating newer work has been extremely positive because I can see work that really needs tweaking and can set these aside to repaint. It's always good to see that you can spot inadequacies that you couldn't see at the time! I've also found that being able to put my personal art references on the wall - these could be anything; newspaper cuttings, photos, postcards of work I admire, drawings, paintings on paper, rough biro drawings on scrap paper - is very useful because it keeps ideas flowing and relevant.

'Early Light,' acrylic on watercolour paper, small

Setting up my studio has also helped me see ways forward because while stacking paintings on shelves, certain elements shout out as relevant and certain elements appear to be 'red herrings' or simply a mess and unfocused. Artistically, it really allows an over-view of the work in general. When I was in my studio in China during my Fellowship (2016 - please check my website for details), I found that being able to lay my ink paintings all around me on the floor and put my canvases across the walls allowed for a great cross-pollination of ideas. Mainly this is because a lot of my work is 'process driven' and I like to play with different elements to weld an image together.

'Landscape,' acrylic on rough watercolour paper

My studio is not large, compared to some studios, but I think it is the whole psychological idea of being able to close a door and get in to The Zone that is the best part of it!

Posted this time; a work in progress (from my waterfalls theme), and some of many recent small works on paper. Some may form the basis of new themes.

Next time I will be posting photos of my studio, and also writing a 'Personal Guide to Painting Materials,' with descriptions about why I prefer certain paints. 

Future posts will include Part Two of my working process with examples of how my ideas emerge from different sources and from the materials. 

New Work, Tweaking Work, Abstract versus Figurative

'Untitled,' acrylic on canvas, 120 x 160 cm

These new paintings are from this week. The first is a canvas I'm painting for a potential exhibition submission and there is a deadline of mid November so as soon as I stop writing I'm getting back to work on this! It is large, 120 x 160 cm, and I'm inventing the elements as I paint, with one thing leading to another. 

Figurative painting makes you look at edges and transitions of colour in a different way to abstraction and it is challenging (something I welcome), and impacts on my abstract landscapes in a positive way. If I had to define what the main difference is, I would say that working with figuration helps to make the 'drawing' elements in the abstracts more definite and focused. I don't define drawing necessarily as putting a line around a shape and filling in with colour; drawing, for me, is the way edges meet and relate to space, shapes, and this includes the transitions of colour and mark making.

'Moon Web,' acrylic and ink on canvas, 40 x 40 cm

'Moon Web' is a painting which also seemed to evolve by itself. I became interested in the moon as a painting subject recently because I love night imagery and often watch the moon and moonlit sky at night. I also liked the idea of webs being a creative factor and they relate to how I see myself as an artist: spinning webs all the time and trapping ideas. 

'Arriving Home,' oil on board, 60 x 45 cm

This is a work in progress from a few years ago. I often go back to older paintings and tweak them and in this one I just want to soften the 'white tree trunk' on the left and sort out a small area in the middle front. Often I find that time needs to pass in order to 'see' what is relevant in a painting and what needs to be tweaked or changed. Some paintings shout out that they are finished, many need that extra time to consider them - though not always years.

'B Went Missing in the Land,' acrylic and ink on canvas, 50 x 70 cm

As well as these works there's a canvas that I started yesterday which is driving me mad! The colours are in reality much brighter (iPad photos tend not to be too accurate). Hubby says 'leave it alone' but when I am frustrated by a painting it generally means that I need to do more work on it. Sometimes the extra pushing at a painting really improves it, sometimes the whole painting gets lost, but it always improves your general practice to push for more. The thing is to never be afraid to want more.