chriswoodartist

I am still “thinking” about the importance of having clear workspaces . Note the word “thinking” . I have begun to realise that it’s not just about me – it’s about others too. Yesterday, a friend and I went to the ArtSpace POSE (Portsmouth Open Studios Event) exhibition, which we both enjoyed and had the gallery to ourselves.

Afterwards, we went into my studio and it struck me that if you want to invite others into your space, first you have to create a space for the two of you ! Fortunately the day before, I had collapsed a load of easels and stowed them so that they occupied much less space. My enormous desk takes up a lot of room but is well worth it as it’s great for displaying large drawings and I have several thousand of those – fortunately not balanced on said desk ! So that’s my ArtSpace studio – I have reclaimed about 30% of the floor and there’s only two or three drawings on my desk !

HOME STUDIO : Sail bags, shoemakers lasts, brass pumps, plan chests, painting tables, piles of offcuts of hardwood (that are too precious to go in the shed), thousands of drawings and several hundred paintings all vie for space in my home studio ! This is the ultimate challenge ! I have a pathway from the door to my desk (what desk) but today’s goal is to clear a square metre behind the chair and clear my desk as I want to do a large watercolour later.

My HOME desk” is a stripped pine work table in front of the window. I quite like it because it has fold out flaps which double its size. I find any flat surface quickly becomes a quagmire of stuff that I am not going to be using that day ! When working, I like to place my shallow box of watercolours next to my drawing board or sketchbook. I also have a water jar, which sits on a saucer to catch the odd drip. The issue is that I use the table for acrylics and oils and very often I leave boxes of one or both which take up valuable room. My master plan is to have dedicated areas for each medium. At the moment I can only use about 10% of the room and this needs to be nearer 90% . I also need to repair the cracked ceiling and decorate the entire room, but that’s another story ! We moved to our current house about 30 years ago and naturally, the studio is one of the last rooms to decorate !

The big joke is that in my former job I used to be the health and safety officer in the department and without exception all of my current work spaces are a health and safety nightmare !

I will close now and tomorrow I will add a few photos of whatever progress has occurred (if any) !