The romantic notion artists studios from the renaissance of a paint stained figure sat at a canvas in a dimly lit room. The brush bouncing off the canvas in swooping, swishing motions. The scent of paint swirling round the room, filling your head and making you dizzy. Sketches and sketchbooks littering every spare space in the room. We have swapped these beautiful historic depictions to those of a more clinical nature in more modern times. White washed walls that show up every grubby mark, every loose drop of paint that wasn't secure to the brush, every other shade of white that isn't "brilliant white" from a tub of emulsion. Most have moved far from the past stereotypical depictions of a studio.
I have had 8 studio spaces in the last 8 years (which doesn't feel quite right to me but is indeed true). Some were amazing, some were okay, and some just did not work. My first three studios were all given to me during my study at Art School. With the first one I decided that I needed all the desks, barricading myself into a small corner that wasn't very functional. It didn't help that I was right beside the door and the sink so everyone was constantly splashing water everywhere. In art school, studio spaces are a large room divided into sections by wall partitions. While the schools try their best to give everyone an equal space, there is always at least one rubbish space in a room. I was lucky and every year I either got an okay or good space.
The second space I got in art school was brilliant. My space was a section of the room divided into a rectangle and was share between myself and two other artists. By the second half of the semester however, one of the artists worked remotely and the other dropped out. Therefore the whole space was mine to do as I saw fit. The only real downside was that the windows were south facing, meaning every warm sunny day between 11am and 2pm, the sun shone into the room, bounced off the white walls and gave me a headache. During these hours I would take lunch or head to the computer lab to work my digital art. If I really needed to stay in my studio, then the sunglasses were on. It sucked in that regard, but at least it was warm and was definitely an improvement from the previous studio space.
My third and final studio in art school was probably my smallest. The art school I attended had two studio space buildings. One, the historic academy building, with huge tall walls, wooden beamed ceilings and access to the computer lab, lecturers office and the art school store. The other, an old storage building that had been converted into make shift studios. And while no one really wanted to be put down to that building, the energy and work that came out of there was much less confined than that of the academy block. Both building were unique and had their ups and downs and neither had the upper hand, but for people who were never given a studio space anywhere except the academy building, there was definitely a snobbery.
After university at Art School, I moved into the towns first artist studios and artist lead commune. The studios were the old office rooms for the local post office that were unused. Each room was either divided into three for artists to share, or the smaller rooms were rented out for a single person. My first studio in this building was a shared studio between myself, an environmentalist, and hot desk spaces that was rarely filled. Eventually the space was filled by a well known digital artists from YouTube who had also studied at the same art school many years prior to myself.
We worked in their fine together until the dynamic of the studios changed and I ended up becoming the new Project Manager, along with another artist. Due to the nature of now being in charge of the entire studios and holding onto a lot of important documents, it meant I needed a more secure studio to work. I ended up moving down the hall two doors into the smallest private studio space available. It had once been the storage cupboard, but with all the furniture ripped out, it was spacious enough for my desk and storage, oh and all my art! I loved my little space, it was small and cute and mine and I left most at home in there for the first few months. However. The space was small and narrow and I began to feel claustrophobic. It may sound strange but I need a lot of thinking head space. I can work in a tiny corner so long as their is a vast space around me for my thoughts to take up. I didn't have this in that studio and eventually the inevitable happened, and I had to move again.
My third studio space withing the artist lead studio was again down the corridor. (We are onto my 6th artist studio now!) A friend of mine moved out of her corner of a shared space and offered it to me. The room was shared with the other project manager and another artist who barely came in, and it felt like the right move. This was my favourite studio space while I worked in that building, and with probably my favourite room mate. The energy and encouragement I received while working in that room was of huge importance to me, and definitely helped shape my journey. Through that friendship I created a body of work and hosted my first solo show in the gallery space of the studios. While not the most heavy of footfall during the entire run of the exhibit, I sold nearly all my work and it allowed me to pay rent for the next few months. As time went on through I knew I could not stay in the studios for much longer. I desperately needed a change of scene and my emotional and mental health was becoming a hindrance to my art and to running the artist commune. Eventually I made the hard decision to leave it behind and move elsewhere.
My problem was, however, that I had no where to go! For the first little while I ended up dumping all my stuff in my parents conservatory, and worked out of there during the winter and spring. In the summer I started a full time seasonal job in order to cover my bills so the studio was forgotten. Once my job was finally finished, the "studio" had been overtaken by spiders and was no longer a good working environment. I felt depressed just thinking about working in there that I just shut the door and pretended it didn't exist. That wasn't create for my creative energies. I felt stunted and broken and confused what to do and where to go next. As I began to spiral into depression brought on by the combination of no place to work and my usual s.a.d problems, the opportunity arose to create my own studio space in the garden.
I chose to go with a 3 x 3 meter insulated garden room (basically a shed) with three large windows and a double glass panned door. It was small, but perfect for what I needed. The inside needed a lot of work in order to get the walls treated before painting. The windows and doors also needed treating with colour and preservatives, and a floor needed to be laid. However it did not take too long to get all this done, maybe a few weeks, and finally I started to move in to my own little studio. This was the first time I had ever had a studio space designed just for me and I didn't need to share it with anyone.
So far I have only had two and a half weeks of truly working in the space, evening out the kinks, getting the heating right (so far I've working in sun, rain, wind, snow and hail - that's Scottish weather for you). I've also made a few changes to the layout of the room, but for now it seems to be working perfectly. I plan to do a studio tour in the next few weeks, once I feel fully settled in, so keep your eyes peeled!
- Morven
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