My new studio!

Hello! Well here it is….my first blog post!

As a trial run I am going to keep this one simple and take you, as promised, through the journey of creating my wonderful new studio.

It is almost exactly a year since we started the project. I had been working in my little old shed for well over 20 years…actually I think it’s getting on for 30! I can’t believe it!!! It was a very basic 10 x 12ft shed that I bought with money left to me by my grandfather. I lined the walls and ceiling, built work surfaces and shelves myself, put a little heater in there and it was my refuge and creative space for all those years! I wonder how many hours I actually spent in that little space and how many paintings emerged from it?!!! SO SO many! I did love it…..but everything has it’s day and weather and time had taken its toll and I was finding the limited space very restricting….so it was time for something new!

My old studio….it does look pretty weather beaten, doesn’t it?!

So the journey began….and to be honest if we had known just how much work was involved, I’m not sure we would have taken on the task! Emptying everything out of the old studio was quite an undertaking in itself! How did I manage to cram SO much stuff into such a small space?

And then dismantling it…a bitter sweet experience!

First we had to dig out the area and create a concrete base for the new studio.

And then the new building arrived on the back of a lorry in the form of piles and piles of planks that filled the whole garden!

It was spring equinox (hense the bunny ears!!) and the whole  family pitched in with the giant building game…slotting plank onto plank….it all works perfectly as long as you do it all in the right order!!! I guess most of us have had the flat-pack furniture experience….well it was like that only much much BIGGER!!!!

Roger (my lovely hubby) worked like a Trojan, chief foreman with a family work-force with varying degrees of skill and enthusiasm!!!

All in all it took about three months of weekends and evenings work to get it built and waterproof and a lot longer for all the finishing.

But here we are…almost a full year on and I have my fabulous new work space! Lucky lucky me!

Thanks so much to everyone who has had some input in it’s creation, most especially Roger who spent oh so many long hours….days…nights working away! From the photos it looks like I did all the work…..but that’s because Roger was taking the photos!!!!

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my very first blog post!

I have SO many ideas of subjects I’d like to talk about for future posts ranging from mythology and the old stories, through plants and trees, food and recipes, festivals and seasonal thoughts and of course I look forward to sharing with you about my creativity in my new studio!

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