Studios Visit

Studios I have known, I'll give you a little tour.

I paint in the kitchen in one temporary accommodation, at a table in the living room in another. In another apartment work hangs in every room to dry. The first thing I do if I find myself moving to a new place is find a space where I can work. I don't want to work the day job hours it takes to pay for an outside studio. I work mostly part-time jobs so I have time to make art. Because I rent, I move a lot, mostly because of renoviction or the sale of the property I'm renting. Sometimes I need to move to find work or I'm looking for a better place or situation in which to live.

Me sitting at the table in the living room, circa 1979, in Corner Brook Newfoundland, where I first began to paint and draw

From the table to the attic to art school

I haven't always been a painter and drawer. Years ago, I learned from books and occasional classes to knit, sew, do macrame, tie-dye, batik, and on and on. I worked on a table in the living room. I learned to make my own patterns. I made my own clothes and clothes for my family on a sewing machine set up in a hallway, bedroom or living room, depending on where I was living. I wanted to learn to draw to be able to design patterns and clothing, so at 29, I took a life drawing course. 

That was it! Not drawing for design, but just drawing. Later, I took painting classes. That drawing course told me maybe I could learn to be an artist. I drew and painted on the table in my living room. I taught myself using Nicolaides' The Natural Way to Draw, practicing 3 hours a day for years. 

Later, I managed to wrangle my own room in the attic of a large house I moved into. In that attic, I made art, organized drawing sessions with friends, and taught art to children.

Portrait made in the attic studio before art school

Me in the pink and yellow, drawing in the attic studio with my two great friends, Helly and Aileen in 1987

The view from the attic studio

When I was 37, an art school opened in my town, Corner Brook, Newfoundland. I had a portfolio, and I applied. I was accepted. 

Art school provided huge scope for experimentation. This piece was titled Flying Away. Art School took me away in so many ways

Studio Balconies, kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms and garages 

Since graduation, I've moved a lot and had to work in many different spaces. My first move was to a small apartment that I shared with another artist. I had a table to work on in one corner of the living room. He had his table in another corner. We invited friends over to make art on the balcony in summer.

I moved to Montreal and moved around Montreal. My first rental was a shared accommodation in an old apartment in the St. Henri district of Montreal. I worked in the bedroom.

I moved out to my own space. I wrote poetry and short stories. I illustrated them. I worked at a tiny table and a computer in a very small living room. Rent was cheap then, so I moved to a larger space. In the next apartment, I had a small separate room in which to work. I began making videos and writing poetry. I made posters for Concordia's Women's Centre events and for a community radio show that I hosted.

I moved to Montreal, I cut my hair, I came out, I had a great time, and a hard time. This is one of those wonderful old apartments on St. Jacque in St. Henri where my bedroom was my studio. The drawing on the wall was 4 ft high, charcoal and conte on paper.

I moved to Vancouver and moved around Vancouver.

I was lucky to find an affordable apartment in Vancouver, let alone a space with a studio. I worked from the corner of the living room in the winter and on the small balcony in the summer. Finally, I made the bedroom into a studio and moved the bed behind a partition I constructed in the living room. In this space, I made a lot of work, some of it quite large. I had several shows of the work made here.

Words Fail Me, ink and pencil on mylar, a piece I made that ended up in my solo show, Building for a Better Tomorrow, in Vancouver around 2006

Here are some photos of the sweet little balcony in East Van and the view in summer. Sometimes I sat on the blue chair at a café table and painted, sometimes I sat on the chair in the other corner and drew.

Summer studio on the balcony

The other end of the balcony

I drink coffee and draw here on the summer studio balcony

View from the balcony in East Vancouver

A real studio again

I found a real studio again at 901 Main St., Vancouver, where I continued the work in ink, pencil, and charcoal on mylar that I developed into paintings on mylar and then ink and colored pencil on mylar. I continued showing my work here and there.

901 Main St. Vancouver studio. It was a shared, large open space.

Only $150 per month in 2005 and 2006 for 150 sq feet.  Yes, I'm pretty tidy, but not always this tidy.

Then, renoviction from both the studio and the apartment. 

A garage studio

I found another apartment at a reasonable rent! Lucky! And this new place has an old garage I can use. Converted by just two of us, in a way that I could easily take apart if I had to move again, it's nice.

But it's cold in the winter. The first winter, I put a tarp over the living room carpet and moved the easel and rolling palette table in for a couple of months. That winter I insulated the area of the garage that was the studio. I had my own space again, and it's bearably warm now.

In this studio, I do a lot of drawing, experimenting, and commissioned portraits, and while working there, I take a couple of art courses in painting at Emily Carr University and continue to work at my job as a legal advocate in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

It was cold in winter, until I insulated the studio area of the garage

Notice the two heaters

View from the garage studio's tiny window in spring

I have to take the garage studio apart in a couple of years. The house is sold and the new owners want us out and family in. 

Temporary apartment sublet studio in an office

I find a temporary sublet until I can move into the new place I want and have to wait for. It has one big living room/bedroom, a kitchen, and a little office. I tarp up the little office space, set up the easel, and get to work. Here, I worked on a whole series of portrait commissions.

Office Studio

View from the office studio

Converted bedroom studio/office

After four warm weather months in this really lovely space, I move into the place I've been waiting for. There is a second bedroom. I'm working on mylar again and drawing and painting on an intuitive level once more. It's good. But it's not over yet.

I had this room in my basement apartment for several years

Happy in the new studio, there's heat!

Kitchen studio

A few years later, the landlord is going to build a larger house on the lot. I have to move out until it's done. Another temporary move. There's a tiny bedroom and livingroom in the next apartment and a large kitchen! I move in the big studio table, the rolling palette table with room for paint supplies, an easel, and a shelving unit. Presto chango, a kitchen/studio.

It's dark in the kitchen studio but I make it work with bright lights on a stand

I was working in oil on mylar here and painting small oils on paper

New Studio under construction. Move-in time is early 2016

I'm back at the old address in a new apartment with my own room again. It is still shared in that it is the office as well as the studio, but it's an office in the morning and a studio in the afternoon. All my stuff is here, and I can keep it set up all the time.

The new studio under construction in the new apartment built on the old address

It turned out great! I'm very happy here

View from the studio window

Settled in to the new place for 10 years now

Studio in a bag

Sometimes I paint and draw outside. I make small works, paintings, and drawings that dry more easily for transport than larger works, art that is a response to what I experience on trips and around the local community gardens and parks. I have a bag for that.

This was the first travelling home for the studio in a bag. There is a bed and a camping set up under the canopy.

The second travelling home for the studio in a bag. It is also all fitted out for camping

Outdoor studio in a bag. This studio is always in the development stage

Outdoor studio with dog, an earlier iteration of what's inside the bag

I work wherever I can and make the most of each location; it's an adventure, really. And adventures often pose of challenges. Sometimes I tear my hair out; I feel I can't work because it's the wrong environment. I do what I can to change that or to adapt until I can change it.

I'd be very interested to hear how other people make it work. Leave me a comment here or on Facebook

or on IG, or message me there. I'd love to chat about it.