It is always tough to follow Lauren on Muddy Colors, but her post yesterday was especially killer.  It was the 7 course feast, today is the light dessert, but hopefully it will be tasty.

I am in the process of moving into a new home and have the chance to design out a new studio space.  I have been researching art studios to see if there are ideas or elements that I haven’t had in the past.

I have worked out of my kitchen, living room, bedroom, as well as dedicated studio space and right now I am in an unheated (this Arizona native still finds the blessedly mild Utah winter cold!) add-on in a rental home while I get ready to move next week into the home I just purchased.

*** I am asking for participation here ***.  Share and image of your studio and tell me why you like about it and what you might change or wish you could do.  Send your images and an information you would like included to:

Updates are starting to come in.  Adding them to the end of the post.

To get things started, I am including some past artists spaces as well as some current.

Bouguereau – Cool ladder scaffold for larger paintings.

The caption below says that the studio had 22 foot ceilings!


Casey Childs has a great space, and lives just a few minutes from my new home in Utah.  It is built in a large 2 car garage with a loft and he is able to host 10 or so artists in his studio each week for life drawing sessions.

A shot of Casey’s taboret.  Impressive.

David LaRocca posted some nice images of his space just today.  David has a great space divided into traditional and digital.  I can’t help but notice it appears to be the light and dark sides of the force studio.

David’s website

The Digital Side

The Traditional Side
Donato has a pretty wonderful space from the pictures posted as part of his open studio invitation a while back.  Located in Brooklyn, it looks like a great space to work. 

Love the old brick wall.

More brick, and a piano that wood elves come to play while Donato paints LoTR scenes.

Rembrandt

Neat shot of the mixing table with chunks of pigment in the bowl and mortar and pestle for grinding and what looks like a dark stone for mulling on the far end of the table.

Norman Rockwell’s airy space.  He was proud of the stand to his left.  It was cast iron and he had it his whole life.

John William Waterhouse, one of my favorite artists and a fairly modest space from what I could find.  “The canvas is a little to the left John, you aren’t painting on anything, just turn a little.”

William Whitaker’s beautiful studio space.  I love this color on the walls.  If I remember right, there is some good science behind this green, not taxing your eyes ability to see color… I could be making it up.  Can anyone give input and confirm?

William Merritt Chase – the opulence of the some of the 19th century studios was pretty amazing… but wait for it, it gets even better!

Last but not least, Fredrick Leighton’s studio.  This is how one paints in style.  Victorian opulence at it’s best.

The studio is now the Leighton House Museum.

Man, I love this space.  What a great studio though it is hard to imagine the success and resources available to the premier artists of this time to be able to commission a space like this.

If that gold half-dome looks familiar, you have seen it before.  It inspired the background in this Waterhouse painting:

So there you have it.  A few artists studios to get things going.  Email me your images and thoughts, or post them in the comments below (if you use the comments, you will have to include a link to the image) and I will include them in the post!
Here is the email again:

Howard Lyon

***  Adding in those who have emailed me pictures of their workspaces  ***

Nicole Alman – website

“This is my space, very lucky to have a housemate who’s let me take over the dining area! We’ve just installed the bookshelves in the fireplace so all our art and travel books finally have somewhere to live. I must say, having a standing desk has made a huge difference to my day to day life – not only are my back and hips in better shape but drawing on the wacom standing up gives you great freedom of movement. It can get a bit bright in the afternoon, but otherwise, this is the best space I’ve had yet.”

Marvin Silvawebsite

“Here is what I have in my apartment. My fiancé was understanding enough to let me use one whole room as a studio. I love being in it either drawing or painting. I do wish it had a little bit more space. Just a little bit more 🙂 other than that I love it.”

Jason Cheeseman-Meyerwebsite

“What I like about my studio:
I’ve got a digital workstation, two easels for painting, and an opulently sized drafting table. I can quickly change from working in one setup to another.

What I wish my studio had:
A little more space. Especially storage space. If I’ve got wet paintings hanging around, or many framed paintings and shipping boxes, it quickly eats into my working square footage.
Pie-in-the-sky? I’d LOVE to have a nice high ceiling.”

Nicholas Colemanwebsite (this is a great studio space!)

“25×25 with 30 foot vaulted ceilings- North facing windows for steady lighting”

Brian McElligottwebsite

It is the bottom floor of our townhouse in virginia. The room was covered in that great 1970’2 dark wood panel stuff when we bought it. I covered the longest wall in a layer of treated plywood and then the somewhat spongy white board.
total space around 8′ x 30′. I like this because I can view and sometimes work on more than 1 piece at a time. I can also bang in nails for larger pieces and pushpins for smaller. The room is big enough that I can really step back and see what I have been doing. It also allows me to work either sitting ( with easels) or standing. My day job has me sitting at a computer most of the day so I NEED to stand up to paint sometimes.

I have my computer workstation in the other half of the room along with some of my favorite toys, sword collection and a few little works by other artists I admire, Thank you illuxcon! The main drawback is a slight lack of natural light on the painting wall but I overcome it with track lighting and assorted lamps I have a nice glass door to the back yard but it’s facing the wrong direction. And of course you need a couch for whatever cats or dogs decide it’s really there space..

Bill Wilsonwebsite

If anyone can show that a studio doesn’t need to be large or impressive to be functional, mine is the poster child. It’s just a small ten by ten foot room in my home. I’ve been a full time artist for over 25 years. During that time I have been, and still am: a portrait painter, illustrator, children’s book author and illustrator, court room sketch artist, political cartoonist, storyboard artist, and concept designer. I have four websites to accommodate everything I do. It’s not an ideal studio; I’d love several dedicated stations for each medium I work in, but I’ve learned to make it work. The trick is to be organized and have everything in the right place and ready at hand. The studio has always been in my home and many paintings have been done with a baby in one arm and a paint brush in the other.

My most valuable tool is my aging Mac tower behind my easel. Connected to the easel are two monitors on articulated arms. This I could not live without. All my reference material, the internet, music, Netflix, etc., etc., all on two monitors. Amazing. When I paint with oils or pastels I just slide up to the easel and start painting. If I’m doing watercolor, casein, or acrylics, I drag my table in front of it.

This book has been shared with me from a few people!  Patrick Ollila sent me the link in an email, including it here:

Inside The Art Studio: A Guided Tour of 37 Artists’ Creative Spaces

Wi Waffleswebsite

My studio is all about doing the most with a very small space: I’m in an apartment and my studio space is also the dining room. The panoramic photo was taken from the angle of someone sitting at the dining table. The half that is darker in the image is the sculpture and craft side, and the larger part is for painting. My favorite part is the pegboard stand, highlighted in the second image. It’s like a vertical rolling taboret of sorts, with all my most used tools and paints on it (there’s stuff on the back as well), which was a custom build.

Very creative storage addition to free up room in a small space.  It looks like store display, I think I would feel like I was shoplifting each time I took something off the cart. 😉