Studio

In this issue we peek into the studio spaces artists have created .to continue thier creative journey through lock down. Each was asked for three ideas for how to move out of creative stale mate. My favourite is setting up a tent and having a zone out space but each insight is a celebration that the creative mind will find a way. 

Description My university accommodation garden and conservatory. The garden became a communal studio space where I also stored all of my found objects that are used in my practice. I finished my final year assessment in this space after my university studios had to be closed down and our final exhibition cancelled.
Tips Work with what you've got, a narrow selection of materials can drive your practice forward and deepen your understanding of materials and techniques. Creativity helps to calm, settle, and focus your mind which improves general mental health and encourages concentration on a positive outcome, due to this you should try to spend time creating as often as possible.
​Andrewsdotart.wordpress.com

The work is about women in the landscape, but using the domestic things I find around me, so buttons, wire, nature they are called “Echo’s” . The clay piece is “women as lover, worker,

I think the best things that have taken me out of a creative block, are ;
1 - Walking out on my own with a sketch/notebook, even just one note, or sketch can inspire lots of work.
2-  Make sure you give yourself time and a specific space to create separate from everyone/thing else, even if you don’t actually make something right away, having that space to arrange your materials play your favourite music dance, can itself put you the right mindset to create something or be inspired. 
3- Talk to other creatives, and don’t worry about a creative block, I think our minds do this to give them a rest and space from wurring with idea. 

Nichola Rodgers - www.nicholajaneart.com    @nicholajaneart

My creative block is never a result of too few ideas but too many. I get too excited, too stimulated and then I go into overwhelm because I cannot choose. Then exhaustion, frustration or fatigue set it and I feel paralysed. My only way out is to just pick one activity knowing my head will chatter away telling me I picked the wrong thing.  Then my mantra is DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING. I make a list of all stages of the activity, so if I wanted to do a lino cut the list would be something like: collect tools together, get source material, sort out inks, trace image, cut into lino, and so on until the tasks were done.  This method tends to stop the negative chatter in my head. With a plan in front of me I can calm my noisy head into just following a set of instructions. 
Instagram: dddaviesart

A studio within a studio. My tiny studio has now become my working environment. I wake up from my bed (which I'm sitting on to
take the photograph) and cross an invisible line in my room into my studio space. Two desks comprise the space. One for drawings, experimentation and framing, and the other for administration work, reading, research, printing, and scanning. A swivel chair populates the centre space to move over from experimenting to website admin work in seconds. Boxes, files, and toolboxes with materials populate the spaces around the desks placing everything an arms reach of me. This organization of my studio within a studio allows me to continue most of my practice uninterrupted by the current COVID situation outside the windows.
Tips Don't focus on what you could have made, focus on what you can make.

Use Instagram and your own websites as possible exhibition spaces. Since the beginning of COVID 19, I have held three exhibitions through my website. 1 solo show and 2 group shows, one of them featuring 20 other artists.

Just because you're indoors, doesn't mean communication and networking have to stop. Message or video call fellow artists and talk about how they've been working and share ideas, techniques, and methods with each other.
Instagram: lewis_andrews_art

Description Since the Ceramic Studio closed I had to work out a way of making 3D work, so semi-splatter proofed my bedroom (although hasn't done much to stop the floor getting caked), and begin working with plaster as a way of creating the textures I usually do in clay.
Tips It's good to take a step back and see if you could actually do with a break away from your practice to focus on yourself or other things etc. However after a while, you start to get that itch to make again and as someone who art practice is 3D based and requires space and expensive bits of kit you might find it difficult to continue your work. You can still exercise that muscle by using plaster as it doesn't require too much space or special machinery, just mix it in a well-ventilated area. You can also mix it with water-based paints to create oil paint-like textures on canvas for a margin of the price and adding cheap PVA glue to the mix will make it even more flexible to use on a substrate such as canvas or scrim. Just try to wash the bowls you use for mixing in a separate container before you use the sink as you'll knacker the plumbing!
​Instaram: kyleramseyceramics

Sanctuary: This is my safe space. I often sit here as the night draws in to sketch or knit as a therapeutic practice. My cat Smokey often sleeps here all day until I join her in the evening. The fur, lights, netting and leaves add a sense of tranquillity and comfort that has aided me in getting a good nights rest. Taking care of my own well being has had a significant impact on the productivity of my artwork.

Tips Putting your own well being before your artwork can have a significant positive impact on your work.
E.g. Using candles, photos, incense, lights, blankets, crystals, plants, journals and music within your space or subjects that you find appealing can offer inspiration and calmness amongst the frustrations we sometimes come across as an artist.

​Using a sketchbook to get out the ideas in your head, even if your not going to act on the idea, is an amazing way to inspire creativity without the pressure of creating. I have a sketchbook that I keep solely for this purpose to document my thought process and make room for new ideas.
Website: www.msblackink.co.uk

My at home studio came to be because of the lock down. This lock down gave me the motivation to make the change in my surroundings to further supplement my creativity . I use this space to create paintings , digital art and illustrations. It also doubles as a nursery for my house plants because I believe a bit of greenery is good for your mental health which in turn is good to boost creativity.
Tips 1. ‘Have your own space to create the art that you want to make’
From experience having my own space dedicated to my art has helped me to remove distractions helped me focus on my projects rather than everything else that is going on.
2. ‘Surround your work space with house plants’
Trust me when I say that having house plants on my table has helped to boost my mood. During lock down we are only allowed to go out once a day for exercise and having nature in my space helps to inspire me.
3. ‘Try something new’
Whenever I am in a creative rut I try to portray my project onto a new medium. There are endless ways you can portray your work: you can turn your painting into a sculpture , You can create prints by making stamps etc. You just have to try because you never know if you will like it .
​Instagram: jn_crlo

My 'studio' space also happens to be my 'library' since this is where I'm studying as well as drawing these days. The night before exams it sometimes triples as a nap space too. It's not got much structure or method to the madness. I think there is a mark for every water colour or oil pastel I've ever used permanently etched into it.
Tips  Don't make a to do list, make a could do list; making creating feel like a task makes it way less fun, having it as an option is way more appealing
Unplug; its way easier to get into the flow of creating when my phone is on do not disturb or I have my focus app running so I'm not constantly checking notifications
Create a cool space; as you can see I love a candle and fairy lights, I also sometimes try and put on music that matches the theme of whatever I'm creating e.g. chill music for watercolours
​Instagram: alice_the_sad

My home art-studio is located on the balcony. There is "grass" on the floor, and there are many windows around, which means light. This is a fairly compact space (about 2M2), but there I can close myself off from everyone. Besides, the sun gets in there, which is exactly what I need right now. It makes me feel better.
Sometimes, my children come to my balcony. The daughter is engaged in music there, and the son just rolls cars on the grass. They don't bother me, we just enjoy the light together.
Tips When the quarantine started, there was still snow outside the window. In Russia, the winter leaves late. I was so sad. I didn't want to paint at all. I was caught up in household chores: children, cooking, cleaning… The depression started. To make matters worse, the stunning plans for a May pleinair in Provence had failed. But then, the weather decided to take pity on me, and the first sunny day, it became so joyful! It was still cold, but we got dressed with the children and went out on the balcony. My husband made there a green covering on the floor, and we were like on grass, in nature!!! The children played all day. I looked at them, my mood lifted and I wanted to open the window to escape from this quarantine! It was impossible, but I'm an artist and I can paint what I want. It was through the desire to realise the impossible, so, I began to create again.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/art_and_air_travel/

​I work by drawing artwork in my sketchbooks, then scanning them into my computer to edit and colour in Photoshop. Sometimes I'll colour using traditional paints as well. I use two monitors, one is the Cintiq 22HD, which I draw directly on to. The 2nd monitor above is for any art references and colour correcting my work. I always keep my diary, sketchbooks and art stationery next to my computer for any spur-of-the-moment creativity. Recently I've started keeping any of my older artwork next to my desk too, plus any art reference books, so I have a reminder of things I want to improve on. I keep cute characters and toys around my desk too, because they spark that child-like energy in me, which keeps me creating new ideas!
​Tips
In December, I left my job as a graphic designer to become a freelance illustrator, so by the time the lock down took place, I'd already gotten used to working at home. Having just started on building an art portfolio, it has been financially challenging. However I've been getting by with odd jobs in graphic design found online.
So far, my tips for maintaining creative practice during lock down, is to find comfort in getting to know yourself better while acknowledging that everyone is going through lock down too. I did this through meditating, journaling and going through my old sketchbooks and diaries. I gained a renewed understanding of my creative soul. What really sparked my inspiration though, is by going through my old work, I ended up created something completely new and have never looked back.
Instagram: voxiegram

Description Small garden shed with lots of light. Often impenetrable due to mess, but post lock down, is neat and tidy!
Tips At first it was hard. I felt discombobulated and unable to concentrate. Time was fractured, elongated and compressed. But I eased back into my practice by drawing exercises every other day. Doing simple
Drawings without needing an outcome took the pressure off. It was important for me to take time out from home education to sit think in my studio.

Instagram: rupscregeen_

It's a space organized by chaos. Only I know where things are and only I know who placed them there. It's my sanctuary with my own scissors, a clean ruler and a saturated pen. My studio, my space to be alone and not be annoyed. Anybody besides me who enters feels foreign. 

Tips
My Philosophy is to disconnect your brain and to just create. Quit thinking and be free. "My best work happens when I'm not looking."
Instagram: ​shannonelizabethsart

Description My space is a single room with a small attached terrace. It is also occupied by various pets who always take precedence.
Tips I set up a small tent in my study as a meditation and visualisation space.
Pets company helps to cope with loneliness.
www.yoelip.com

This is my bedroom where I live, sleep, work, create. My bedroom is a bedroom. Or is it something else? Maybe a gallery, a waiting room, a chapel, a prison… And I decided to turn it into an art show/experience/object of desire, which reflects on the new socio-political realities brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is my “Closed Bedroom.”

Starting with the question of the role of the artist in a time of crisis such as ours, the paintings initially created during the lockdown served as a diaristic practice for experimentation and as a way of reflecting, amid confusion and anxiety, on the current events.

My bedroom, which becomes the artwork itself, with all its contents and its larger context of social distancing and self-isolation, locates my paintings now between the inside and the outside, the private and the public, which further invites questions of how we negotiate our new experiences of communication and social interaction. Our homes seem to have become the new borderline between the private and the public, in that the “old private” is for now the “new technologically-mediated public.”

So I now invite the public to step inside my "closed bedroom" and experience virtually its ambiguous place and function in the world of the pandemic.
Tips Anyone can turn their private space into something else and something more, a gallery, a piece of art, a chapel, an object of desire, a meeting place or, indeed, a prison. The choice is yours as an artist and the power is yours to give it away, but the point remains the same, creativity knows no boundaries and for a time like this, art can definitely keep us sane!
Instagram: @p_bistran

Description My studio is always full of work in progress whether it be my paintings or support work of drawings, collages or photographs. I like having several pieces on the go as I can switch between them when I'm feeling a bit stuck on one or waiting for a section to dry before I can continue working. Paints and brushes always get left out so I can grab them whenever inspiration strikes. I have a little heater in the garage -come - studio which is great because it can get cold.. The studio can get messy at times and I like a good reorganising at times as I find it helps refresh the creative mind.
Tips Reading art books and re learning the basics helps to see the work from a new perspective.
Creating sketches and collages to help inform a painting
Reflecting on past work and what worked well and what did not.
​Instagram: @bekibillings_artist