Leafdays

So I want an art studio. Or at least an art corner. A place where I can make stuff and hey, maybe even have an inspiration board up on the wall. But even in the new house, it looks like there won’t be any room for it, at least not until we extend the kitchen sideways to make the dining room. This will allow me to turn the current dining room into an art area…but of course this is also not going to happen for another gazillion years (or at least until the end of December, which feels like a gazillion years to me).

Thing is, after months of living in a minuscule flat where I have to store my gesso among the towels in the bathroom cabinet (because it is one of the few places that Caterina can’t reach) and where making anything requires a preparation worthy of a major battle (because there is no room to craft, and because there is carpet everywhere, which doesn’t go hand in hand with acrylic paint), I am desperate for a place to make things, and I don’t want to wait another half a year for it.

So I have to be creative about this. I considered the storage loft (which has a lovely window and convenient, cheap floorboards) but it is a small room directly under the roof, so it may be a bit too hot and cramped to work in. I looked at the study, which is a great option because that’s where I spend a good part of my time anyway, but computers and paints are incompatible and I’d also have to kick out my work from home husband to make enough room for my pots, ephemera and jars (that would be fine by me, of course, but not so much by him). And finally, I went out in garden.

We have a side yard just outside the living room, which is decked and well sheltered but not really used for much. An art table would fit there perfectly, and the supplies could either be stored in damp-proof cabinet under the table or, the prettier stuff at least, could be shown off in the living room. The external wall would be the ideal place to stick an inspiration board, ventilation would be guaranteed by being outdoors and there is plenty of place to put stuff to dry. It is a far cry from the lovely studios featured in Where Women Create, but it will do.

There’s the small problem of the British weather to contend with, of course, but the cold would not be an issue in summer and a canopy could shelter me from the rain. And by the time winter comes and it gets too cold to create outdoors, well, I hope the extension will be well under way (though, after the debacle of the last few months, I won’t hold my breath). Or maybe I’ll have become so inured to the cold that I’ll be able to continue working outside.

But I’ll worry about that later. For now, I’ll just enjoy the views over the blooming flowers, the emerald lawn and (our neighbour’s) magnolia tree. It hardly gets more inspiring than that.

The view from my soon-to-be art studio