> THE ART OF A STUDIO

Green considers herself fortunate to be part of a household with two incomes, allowing her to paint full time and to rent a studio away from home. But for those who work at home, she says setting up a studio is fairly straightforward.

The most important thing to an artist is material. “You use stuff to make stuff, so you have to have a way to organize it so that you’re not wasting time looking for this and that.” When she goes to the cottage, for example, she carries her “studio” into the woods — a rigid plastic box big enough to hold a circular saw and her paints and brushes. It’s the same for a digital artist — finding a way to organize material on your laptop.

You can set up a studio anywhere — in a closet, the corner of a bedroom, or a spare room. Size is less important than consistent light and the ability to close the door so you can leave things set up and so you can keep the world out when you’re working. For some that might be a door, for others it might be headphones.

Include something that energizes you when you enter the artist zone. For Green, it’s space, light and windows to look out. She also recommends a comfortable spot to sit — she has a sofa where she looks over her work, thinks about it, or browses art books when she is unable to nip over to the AGO. “If I run across an issue in one of my paintings, it’s helpful to see how another artist might have resolved that. I read a lot of art journals to see what’s current, and what other artists are doing.”

Lastly, and possibly most importantly, is to have access to a vibrant community — it keeps the creative juices flowing, Green says. “This building and its community are what really make this studio an oasis. You can feel isolated in a home studio. So if you are at home, make sure you have the ability to access people, especially other artists.”