Garden studio (Shed)

We bought a 'log cabin' type of building which we built down the bottom of the garden for me to do all my guitar teaching/ recording. It has power and lighting and extra insulation in the roof and floor, and I could easily draw/ paint down there in addition to my music.

I guess I'm lucky - we had an outbuilding away from the house which I converted (with full regs approval) - only drawback - it doesn't have running water so when nature calls it's off to the house. I put in work surfaces with drawers etc under and a wall hanging system for paintings - not the largest studio and only three places for others but big enough for me these days..

I find the debate about the most suitable form of lighting for painting to be an interesting one. Well you can only speak as you find and although I've used daylight lamp in the past I've found no advantages.Nowadays I use an ordinary warm white fluorescent tube in my studio and am perfectly happy with it. I know I am likely to be inviting a lot of flack here but I do tend to regard the use of specialist lamps in the same 'light' as the Emporers new outfit. A few observations: 1) Firstly I am familiar with my palette and have a good idea how the finished work will turn out colourwise regardless of the light source. 2) If working from a photo or painting a still life and wishing to replicate the colours reasonably accurately I would suggest that you need to look at both subject and painting in the same light source whatever that is so why use specialist lamps dangling over your easel? 3) I found the daylight lamp that I used to be far too white and glary with no subtleness in it which I didn't find that helpful and often resulted in a lack of tonality in the finished work. 4) Okay so specialist lamps provide a nice clean light which in theory replicates natural light but when paintings are finished they are not dislplayed in natural light - they are displayed indoors where they are more than likely to be hung under something more akin to my warm white tube. 5) If any of the great masters were still alive perhaps we could ask them what lamps they used - on second thoughts they probably used candles.. Well I can only speak for myself and I know others will strongly disagree with me but we are all different and work differently and there are no rules when it comes to art - just differences of opinion. The bottom line is it's a case of what personally suites you best.

Some of you live in the lap of luxury, it seems! I don't have, but would like, a separate studio. If I still lived with a partner, it would be essential - I don't mind other people being around while I'm working (while I'm painting, anyway; writing is a different matter altogether), but you just get in each other's way unless there's a dedicated space. I make as much room as possible in a corner of my flat, and work from there. It's not ideal, and I'm a bit limited on the size of pictures I can produce - a really big one would be a problem, not least in finding somewhere to put it on completion. Ideally, I'd like a self-contained space, with good light (from the North), and the ability to make a shocking mess without spattering paint over books, furniture, computer screen etc. But I manage with what I've got. As for lighting, I think I'm with Michael on the whole: it would be lovely to have Thea's set-up - and again, if I could, I would. Yet all I've got is a long-life, standard bulb centrally placed, augmented by a portable lamp with the same sort of bulb and of course natural light - I've got a glazed door giving me a light from the North. I think one adapts: I don't think a "clean" white light would do anything to improve my work (better eyesight would help..) and others have observed that my pictures look better when taken outside or into well-lit gallery spaces than they do in the dark, dismal depths of my cave..... I've noticed the same myself, and can only assume I make allowances for the less than ideal light in here. The point that one gets to know one's palette is an important one - if you can do that, then even introducing a new colour becomes relatively straightforward because you understand the colours you're mixing it with or setting it against.