Claim your creative space
Claiming your creative space
Hello sweet creative!
After almost two weeks, it feels so good to have the studio back to myself! If you’re subscribed to my newsletter and have followed my latest adventures, you know it had been turned into our family room while our windows were being changed. I won't lie to you, after a while I got a little bit cranky!
Because the truth is: as artists, we need a personal space to create. A quiet place where we can day-dream and experiment, undisturbed, without anyone looking over our shoulder or demanding our attention. Creating can be such an intimate, vulnerable process. To me (and I know this is true for many of us), most paintings go through an awkward, or even downright ugly phase. At those times, I need to be alone with my art, and feel free to make a mess!
Make it yours, make it work
Your creative space doesn't have to be big, but it needs to feel YOURS. Safe, uplifting, inspiring... I'm not there yet, with plenty of tidying up to do this weekend, but moving back into my studio is a great opportunity to reassess the space, how it works for me, and make a few changes.
For instance: my painting table is currently taken up by the landscape series I'm working on (above), so I have no space for art journaling, and if you know me a little, you know that's not good! I'm only just realizing that I need a permanent, dedicated space for art journaling, because it has become so important to me.
Now, a few month ago I set up a dedicated table for encaustic art, but I haven't even used yet, supposedly because I don't have proper ventilation and it's too cold to work with the windows open... in other words: I'm procrastinating big time! I also have a not-too-well-lit counter where things tend to pile up. See where I'm going?... It's time to shake things up, move things around and make the whole space work better for me and my current needs.
Fill it with Love
I recently blogged about how much I want to make our house a true, cosy home (read the blog here). My studio is part of it and I want it to feel nurturing and love-filled too. This week was very emotional because we emptied my grandparents' home (my grandpa passed away two years ago and my grandma now lives in a nursing home). But on the bright side, I feel so lucky to have brought home some of their belongings that will keep being used and remind me of them.
In particular, some lovely items will be perfect in my creative space: two large wicker laundry baskets, a gorgeous little rolling cart (my new art journaling table?) and my favorite of the lot: my grandpa's old working stool, covered in paint splatters and scratches.
This little stool is the perfect opportunity to overcome one of my creative fears, and embrace my latest obsession: painting old furniture! You may not believe it, but I used to be super scared of painting furniture (I still am... a bit... a lot...). Yes, I'm a painter, but the messy kind! I love paint drips in my art, but on a pretty antique? Not so much.
Now, this little stool is already full of imperfections, so it's a very forgiving project: the legs used to be bright red, which is really not my color, and I've decided to paint them a softer green. Of course I'm leaving the seat as it is, with all its shabby loveliness! It almost looks like an abstract painting, don't you think?
This also means I need a to set up a craftsy painting corner at the moment! I'm so excited to experiment with milk paint, chalk paint etc. Plus I’m pretty sure they will find their way into my paintings too...
So here is my invitation to you this week: take a step back, take a good look at your creative space and see if you can make some adjustments to make it work better for YOU. Don't hesitate to move things around and declutter what you no longer need. No matter how big or small, it is your creative home, so give it some love!
And I would love to see pictures: you can post them in the comments below.
