Hello! I thought it would be a good idea to get back into blogging (I used to do it years ago before Instagram and Facebook became so omnipresent...), to share some more behind-the-scenes stuff, and a maybe a bit more about me and my working process. I also really like writing so it'll be nice to flex those writing muscles again (although as you can tell I'm a little out of practise).
I thought it would be nice to share some images of my workspace. I work from home, in my rented flat in Glasgow. When we first moved in a few months ago, this room was bright green, with dark green on opposite walls. Luckily our landlord allowed us to paint it white! It always takes me a little while to feel comfortable working in a new space after moving, but now we've been here a couple of months I've settled into some sort of routine again and I love working in this space. I share the space with my partner Tim, who is a film-maker (but also does a bit of music - hence the guitars by the window). We pretty much exactly half of the room each. Here's mine...
All of our furniture is from IKEA in case you were wondering (apart from the rug which is H&M Home, and my ugly chair - I can't remember where that's from).
I think the bay window is my favourite thing about this room. Even though there's a big tree right outside, there's still lots of lovely natural light coming through. I'm generally quite a tidy person, and clutter frustrates me, especially on my desk! I try to keep it as neat as possible.
I love having cute pots to hold all my materials. L-R these are from: House of Rym, Anthropologie, Duck Ceramics, and the others are just old pots I had from other things!
I have a lot of tiny brushes and a few bigger ones - the orange handled ones are my favourites! The little white pot holds my paint tubes and was given as a gift. The whale glass here is perfect for washi tape and is from Anthropologie.
I really got into houseplants in the last year or so. There are five in the studio and this rubber plant is my favourite. The plants seem to blend in nicely with all the greenery outside and makes us feel a little bit like we're in a treehouse.
My favourite plant in the studio
Prints L-R: 'Small Steps Every Day' by Katie Abey, 'An A-Z of Sea Creatures' by me, Wall Planner from Alison Hardcastle, 'Boat Folk' also by me, 'Moose' by Oliver Jeffers, 'Lady' by Mairi Dryden, 'You Did It!' from Redcap Cards, 'You have to be willing to be bad at it in order to get good at it' by Libby VanderPloeg, and 'Harbour Town' by Clover Robin.
I've been quite restrained with my studio wall decor... sometimes I can get carried away pinning everything and anything I can find on it! I've kept it neat for now with a some of my favourite prints and this gorgeous wall planner from Alison Hardcastle. I'm not really into those positive-affirmation type prints, but having said that, everything I've chosen to have on my wall motivates me in some way and keeps me in a positive mindset! Two of the pieces on the wall are my own work - my favourite pieces that I've done. It's nice to glance at these when I'm feeling bad about my work! The background on my computer is a photo of Paris taken from the Eiffel Tower, just in case you were wondering...
This little fella is Jeffers (you've probably seen him popping up in my instagram posts and stories!), our 3 year old cockapoo. He likes to hang out in the studio with us most of the time, but sometimes he prefers to go and lie on the sofa or on our bed...
So that's about it! I've always worked from home, and even when I was at art school I did most of my work from home too. Tim and I have shared a space since we started living together 4 years ago. It's nice to have someone else to share the space with so we don't get too lonely, and to have someone there to bounce ideas off, or get some contructive criticism from! This is my favourite workspace I've had so far and I'm always reminding myself to be grateful for having a separate room to work in after years of working in the corner of my bedroom! I love working at home - it has its pros and cons, but it suits me perfectly.
One last thing... we store a lot of bits and pieces like envelopes, tools and accounts folders in this cupboard, and the lining paper is, well, interesting...
