To practice your art, the right ambiance goes a long way towards sparking creativity!
Setting up a studio is as exciting as building or decorating a new house! Your painting space can be as luxurious as a room or a studio on its own, to a little corner set up with shelves and all your equipment. A couch is a welcome addition to sit and ponder over a cup of tea what your next move is going to be!
Any outside area can also be utilised, like an old potting shed or any space you can set up and call your own.
I'm a great one for scouring second-hand shops and painting and fixing up something I think will be useful.
Lumber yards are great for finding old shelving boards and second-hand shops offer great bargains.
My Studio entrance
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A corner with an old table top used as a studio
I love using vintage cups and mugs as hold-alls for brushes and tubes, but don't throw away your old chipped cups, mugs or drinking glasses. They make excellent hold-alls and I use all my old crockery (plates, side plates and desert plates) for mixing paints and testing colours (wonderfully easy to clean - virtually NOTHING sticks to porcelain - even oil paints can be removed easily!).
Office sundries like letter trays and desk tidies can be used with great efficiency and most households have these tucked away somewhere. Even old tea trays can be utilised. Of course, glass jars are the staple water holders, but for field work, best get yourself a portable, collapsible Japanese water pot.
A small table placed against a wall served as my first art corner.
My Potting shed converted into an open-air studio
Any outside area can also be utilised, like an old potting shed or any space you can set up and call your own.
I'm a great one for scouring second-hand shops and painting and fixing up something I think will be useful.
Lumber yards are great for finding old shelving boards and second-hand shops offer great bargains.
My Studio entrance
The North-Western corner of my studio - A couch makes a wonderful addition to ponder your next move
Apart from shelving, peg-board offers great space saving features where you can utilise a wall to hang all sorts of odds and ends like water holders, easels and even fold-up chairs. A draughtsman's table comes in handy to use inside the studio as it offers comfort and a larger area to put pencils and brushes. A large table is a must for a vast array of stuff! Of course you don't have to spend a vast amount of money to buy one - find an old door at the lumber yard and placed upon builders' trestles it makes a wonderful table for very little money..
A corner with an old table top used as a studio
I love using vintage cups and mugs as hold-alls for brushes and tubes, but don't throw away your old chipped cups, mugs or drinking glasses. They make excellent hold-alls and I use all my old crockery (plates, side plates and desert plates) for mixing paints and testing colours (wonderfully easy to clean - virtually NOTHING sticks to porcelain - even oil paints can be removed easily!).
Office sundries like letter trays and desk tidies can be used with great efficiency and most households have these tucked away somewhere. Even old tea trays can be utilised. Of course, glass jars are the staple water holders, but for field work, best get yourself a portable, collapsible Japanese water pot.
A small table placed against a wall served as my first art corner.
My Potting shed converted into an open-air studio
A truly inspirational studio, every artist's dream!
