I moved last autumn from a rather draughty 4-bed rented farmhouse to a cosy bungalow. I have the loft conversion upstairs, my parents have the downstairs, and we share the kitchen. Having spent 15 years feeling overexposed and overstretched in my previous property, the diminutive size and intentional space of my current living arrangement is a welcome contrast, and I love that everything I own I can see, and everything I see I own. I have organised my studio in a way that suits both work and relaxation – important when I run my business as well as spend my free time in my little room.
I guess this is where most of it happens. This is my grandparents’ formica kitchen table, and here is where I paint and eat: here it is in studio mode. I have some thrushes from vintage field guides in Victorian gold frames above, and my recent batch of logbooks sit underneath.
I tend to work from my ancient iPad which is basically a digital picture store, but I also like a magazine subscription for inspiration and reference images as sometimes it’s nice to not have to keep tapping a screen. NatGeo Traveller is my current choice as they do great subscription offers at Christmas.
I have my stay-wet palette for gouache, except I always forget to put it away so the stay-wet feature isn’t utilised; gouache dries so fast anyway! I like a flat tray rather than recesses for my paint as I tend to dip in and use what I see rather than mixing specific colours.
Both these items of furniture are family pieces, as is the piano stool. I have an iMac for Adobe – I use InDesign and Photoshop for the logbooks and Adobe Express for social media. I also enjoy playing with Illustrator but I haven’t had a chance to tinker with that for a while.
My books are on type and brutalist architecture, two of my interests. My cat enjoys knocking the small items off both the desk and the small cabinet so my AirPods and my mouse often end up in the floor if I forget to box them in somehow. The letterpress poster is from a workshop I took about 18 months ago.
My IKEA bookshelf, which is actually a couple of IVAR ends cut down to make a shelving unit. I have a Lego Queer Eye set on the top shelf, and books and nail polish below. My natural history and art collection make room for my handmade tea cup.
The small briefcase contains all my collaging and calligraphy materials, with the stay-wet palette on top.
I have a collection of Pressing Matters magazines which are lovely but I do like to mix my reading material up or I take it for granted so I am having a break from that for the moment.
Here are my IKEA pegboards. They hold a few of my art materials and all the knitted birds my mum has made for me. The Peregrine is an oil I did a few years ago, and my Christmas tree is hung on the eaves door.
This is where I read, write, and relax. The Facebook Marketplace £20 sofa fits perfectly and it has been wonderfully enhanced by the sheepskin I bought last year from Plaw Hatch. I can shift my iMac so I can watch movies and YouTube while putting my feet up, so it’s a very comfortable nook.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of my little space.
