If you do not have an official, proper, "real" painting studio, don't
feel bad. Your studio can be in a corner of your dining room. Many
people's are. Or it can be a section of the garage where you make your oil painting art; a spare bedroom
(people still raising kids won't know what one of those look like); or part of the
laundry room.
If you're lucky, like my Norwegian Artist Steve Henderson, it's a separate
building, but these things evolve. The barn studio he's commandeered now used
to house six of us while we took two years to build our house, and before that
it was, well, a barn.
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| We all wish
that we had a huge, sweeping panorama of endless space in which to paint and
create. The Pataha by Steve Henderson, oil painting. Available as a limited
edition print and a miniature
study.
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The important thing is to create a designated space,
preferably somewhere you don't have to set up and take down each time, and for
that reason, the dining room table itself is less than ideal for creating
fine art oil paintings or other works. But if that's all
you've got, then go with it. You can always eat on the coffee table.
The other important thing is to realize that just because
you do not have a designated studio does not mean:
1) You're not a real painter or
2) This is not the time of your life to paint
Most of us live in a large enough space that part of it,
somewhere, is not really being used. Find this place. Clean it out, take it over, barricade it with chairs if necessary.
My own office, where I run Steve Henderson Fine Art and my
freelance writing career, is in the 10 x 10 piano room, much of which is filled
with, you guessed it, the piano. My desk, a small filing cabinet, table for the
printer, and a Mission style dresser hold my computer, the business records,
and mailing supplies.
It's a small space, but in it we do big things. What kind of space do you work in? How have you made it work for you? Leave a comment and let us know.
--Carolyn