A new studio ... and more
I now have a sunny and bright new studio …
and a new … cozy … office!
Most homes in the Netherlands (or at least, North Holland) are terraced housing with two to three stories, the third story a converted attic space with two bedrooms on the first floor (American second) and one to two bedrooms on the second floor (yep, the American third). It was pretty easy to predict where my studio would be when we started looking for housing. In the attic ;-). In our past two homes, my husband has graciously (or wisely) given me the primo rooms for my studio. I kindly promised him that this move would mean he could choose the best and biggest room in the house for his music studio. But the bonus with these terraced houses is there is a small third bedroom on the first floor (so small many use it for a clothing closet). As my studio is a not so large 9’3” x 10’ (281 x 304 cm), I really need space for my computer and my enormous pile of art books! So I will now have two spaces. The set up is very similar to what I had in San Francisco, where the internet was so bad I had to keep my computer upstairs. BTW, the internet ROCKS here - glass fiber! Three stories and excellent internet all over.
So now how to downsize yet maximize the studio space? I’m not entirely sure. I started with ordering some light and open shelving from Ikea for the studio space.
My crate with all of my art supplies still hasn’t left the US and isn’t expected until some time in August so until then, I’m working only with pen, pencil, watercolor and now, gouache.
I have no sewing machine yet (I miss my Juki TL-2010q SO MUCH!) but the sewing machine store (which has Juki’s!) and the art store are a 5 minute bike ride from our house, not to mention several knit shops and two linen fabric stores! Am I dreaming?? I think I will be okay here.
For now, I’m working hard at establishing a work routine: studio every day in the morning, down a flight of stairs to work in the office and then the rest of the day is family time and getting settled into our new life. The getting settled part is discombobulating. I’ll write more on that soon, before I’ve blocked it out. It’s not bad, just slow and time consuming and … weird feeling. But the important part is I am making things … mostly in my head but putting paint to paper and playing at least. Thanks, my dearest friend Myrna, for the reminder to get into the studio every day to make a n y t h i n g.