For many artists these spaces are a bolt-hole, a sacred place for painting, printing and craft’s. Whether it is an architect designed building constructed in the garden of a house, converted loft space, spare bedroom, dining room, conservatory, garage or the humblest of garden sheds, these sometimes tiny, cramped and chaotic spaces is where they have produced some of their finest work.
But, these studios are more than just a workplace. They say so much about the artist themselves. The personal litter that surrounds them, partially painted canvases, paint-splashed easels and floors, cloths, brushes, portable radiators, tables and chairs, all individually reveal bits of knowledge about the artist and the work they produce.
Francis Bacon’s studio for example was a horizontal ankle deep strew of books, photos, old shoes, paint tubes and rags. Giacometti used the things that cluttered his studio as a theme for paintings whilst Oswald Stimm took twelve years to create the optimal studio conditions in which the cyclical movement of his creative thinking and action could take place. I on the other hand must ruefully admit that my studio has no jugs of brushes, no turpentine-steeped rags, just a room where I work hunched over a computer and is really quite boring by comparison.
That said there are surprising similarities between all the studios I have visited including my own. There's usually a telephone around somewhere, and often the artist is not working in splendid isolation but with a rabble of assistants, wives, husband’s, lodgers, children, cats and dogs, It’s an absolute delight!
