Change of address

At the beginning of this month, I moved the final bits out of my Margate studio and made my own home studio space.

This move was a long thought out decision but having chronic health conditions meant that even the short journey to the studio in Margate was having a detrimental effect on both my health and my practice.

However condensing an 8 m2 studio space into a a couple of square metres in the lounge meant sacrifices had to be made. It turns out though that these ‘sacrifices’ were more beneficial than detrimental and have helped me have a better sense of direction for my practice. I could no longer fit in lino cutting materials and equipment, lots of collage materials and paper, paints of various flavours and had to rationalise my book collection quite drastically. Culls can be cathartic though eh.

So back to my new set up. We bought this ‘magic box’ when we moved here and its a thing of both beauty and practicality and hard to believe they are no longer widely available. As my studio did before, the space has to serve a multitude of purposes and with some careful order and tidiness, I think I have all I need. Sure, a little more desk space would be handy but I have enough to do everything I can, need or want to do.

This is what makes it a ‘magic box’, From what looks like a teak cocktail cabinet expands to give a fully working desk space. We had extra power points added but the lamp is original and folds back in to the top shelf when not in use.

The most basic set up is to simply pull the desk panel out, lock in place and start drawing or typing.

Adding a cloth to the surface and pulling out the tray from bottom left space and putting it to the right of the desk gives me an instant watercolour station. I bought a plastic tray that fits water, watercolour palette and brushes laid flat and if there are any spills the tray protects everything.

I can use my iPad either flat on the desk or, as I prefer, on a bespoke drawing board. Additional daylight LED light and I have a comfortable drawing station.

Having the printer directly above allows me to both print and scan all of my work to share here too.

I’ve custom made from foamboard a flat surface for drawing that lays on top of my iPad drawing board so one piece of equipment becomes multi-use.

In it’s final iteration, my MacBook Air sits in it’s space with a back up storage SSD below and room for keyboard and mouse on the desk with room for note or reference books too.

It’s taken a while to get to this point and I still feel there are more tweaks to come but everything I need is now within reach and I have all I need and nothing I don’t.

However as much as this now suits my needs perfectly it does leave a gap that you can’t fill working from home and that’s the social interaction you gain from working in a shared space and thats’s what I miss most. Overall though on balance, this has had only positive impacts on both my health and productivity so really happy we made the decision to move me back home.