The Blackbird Sings Studio /// Photographs © Natasha Newton 2013
Over the weekend I decided that the time had come to have a bit of a change-around in the studio. Frankly, it was a mess. It needed to be thoroughly cleaned, stuff needed to be thrown away, everything needed to be tidied, and I was longing to rearrange the furniture.
I moved into my freshly-redecorated-and-furnished studio back in late Spring 2012, but didn't add the finishing touches to the space until the Summer. You may have seen it in this blog post here. Anyway, having worked in the room for several months, I decided that - as pretty as it looked - I could make better use of the space. I've also been having a lot of migraines and migraine related problems over the past few weeks and I know a lot of it stems from tension in my shoulders and neck. When I'm working at the table on flat watercolour paintings, I tend to hunch over and hold myself in a certain position for hours. If you're an artist or illustrator, you may have experienced this problem.
I bought a great tilted drawing board a couple of years ago (this one) but, in its previous location, my studio table was never fully extended (I bought this Ikea Bjursta table in white) and therefore was always too cluttered to make room for the drawing board. After months of suffering, I'd finally had enough. It became clear that I needed to find a new place for the table so that I could fully extend it; to make room for the drawing board and also make use of the great natural light coming in through the window.
So I moved the table into the nook between the wardrobe/storage cupboard and window, and the easel (for larger canvas paintings) and office chair moved to the other end of the room. The long metal cabinet was relocated to where the table used to be. It took the best part of a day to totally clean and rearrange the room, but it was so worth it! It's much more practical, and the space feels larger, which is an unexpected bonus.
In other news, I'm off to Aldeburgh with Leon for a week-long holiday (we'll be working as well as relaxing) on Wednesday. The cottage we're staying in should have an internet connection, so I'm hoping to be able to blog from there! I can't wait...
