My Studio
This is the place where I spend more of the daylight hours than anywhere else. It is situated in the conservatory at the back of the house. The room is entered via the sitting room. I still consider it to be a shared space but in reality I am the only one who uses it. It can be cold in winter and hot in summer but mostly it is a pleasant place to be. The view from the studio is to the back garden to which there is a door.
The room contains all of my art equipment, materials and supports which are all easily accessible. I do feel the need to keep the room reasonably tidy. I consider it to be part of the living space of the house but as said before I am the only one who uses it. It does have a dart board and dart mat which I like to keep free for practice and distraction. Rather unusually the room also contains a sauna and shower room. The sauna is rarely if ever used and currently I use it as a storeroom for supports, canvases and paper, and old paintings. The space above the sauna is where I keep old sketch books and packing materials.
Whilst considering my studio for this piece I feel that it could do with some reorganisation. It was partly reorganised so that I could set up the table of objects required for exercises 1.0 – 1.2, this is still in place.
I tend to keep on display the paintings that I have recently completed, I live with them for a while until I have moved on to new works. My desk has been described in an earlier blog. It always has my laptop, my OCA course book, my sketchbook, my notebook, my diary and my ipad mini which is mainly used for listening to music. Listening to music is a constant. sometimes I am not really listening.
My studio is a pleasure to be in. I like working in it, sitting in it. It is comfortable. I take my breakfast into the studio everyday. It is part of my routine which if I have no other commitments runs something like this.
9-10am Breakfast, emails, actions and update my diary
10am – 1pm Current OCA projects
1pm – 3pm Lunch and walking the dog
3pm to 5pm More work and painting
5pm – 11pm Other activities, I’m not usually in the studio during this time, often out.
A Day in the Studio – Uri Aran
My first impression when looking at Uri’s studio was that it had an area displaying completed works and an area with work in progress. The works area is messy and confused and Uri explains why it is so. He states that a lot of his work is trying to organise, make sense of things, waiting, thinking, reflecting, trying out ideas and what I found most interesting, letting things age together. His process is about trying to tell a story and to represent this story using the objects in his studio. I was curious to find out how objects made there way into his studio but that I another activity. Collection and selection.
Valerie Mrejens ‘Start working’
This is a piece about procrastination.
Whilst I can sympathise with the feeling and notions expressed I have over the years been driven by deadlines. In my professional life, before retirement, my life was a series of deadlines, daily, weekly, monthly and annually. I seem to have retained this discipline and use the setting of Assignment deadlines as one of my motivations to complete the next task and keep moving forward. I do read ahead and try to ascertain what the next projects are and think about how long they may take. Is the deadline realistic? Do I need to get a move on? I keep a record of how much time I spend on my OCA studies. This helps to assure me that I am on course. I do put other tasks on hold at times so as to prioritise my studies. There is plenty of work to do in the garden as spring is here, what gets done gets done what doesn’t is left undone.
Where I sometimes struggle is with inspiration and this can lead to procrastination. This is particularly true if the task or project doesn’t resonate with me. It is then that I have to try alternative strategies. This can involve anything from walking the dog, going and playing my guitars and ukuleles, listen to music or perhaps painting something I want to paint. Once I regain focus on a task I find that I tend to get on with it, often with a rush to finish before the inspiration goes. The danger with this is that the full realisation of the idea or project is left without being fully explored.
Mark Taylor 'Studio Practice' 