Most of us have a space that acts as a ’studio’ if that is a separate building or just a temporary corner of the kitchen. It isn’t usual to start out with a dedicated space and of course plein air artists can settle to paint anywhere. Some artists have special requirements for presses or large easels but all of us are impacted by our surroundings in one way or another.

Recently I re-designed my studio which had been somewhat over-crowded for a long time. By the time I got rid of boxes and found new ways to store things, removed unused furniture and eliminated the clutter it looked like a different place.

No wonder I had felt overwhelmed in that crowded space! Having a friendly but relatively sparce environment seemed to encourage imagination to expand. Being able to draw and paint unbothered by clutter in my peripheral vision seemed to let me focus better on my work.

While some artists no doubt would feel comfortable in a busy place others, like me, might find that they are inhibited by the surroundings. Take a look around you when you are creating and see if your environment is impacting your work.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Artists Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.