Pros and Cons of Renting a Studio Space
A studio of one’s own - is it really necessary for being creative?
I’ve been lucky in the past because all the places I’ve lived had a spare room so I was able to have dedicated studio space at home. This past year however I moved nearer to London and my space became considerably smaller. There was no spare room - and the rooms that I do have are all very, very small. In a year where I wanted to explore painting bigger - suddenly everything was much, much smaller.
Which meant that in order to make it work I needed to find a studio space outside of my home. I was really nervous about this as I wasn’t sure that the pros would outweigh the cons. Now I’ve been in a studio space for four months and have a much clearer idea of what having a studio space brings to my art practice.
Pros:
as a parent and especially as a single parent it can be hard to set aside time for yourself so just leaving the house means I’ve set my intention to have time and space just for me to be creative
overcoming all the obstacles - such as commuting - shows me how absolutely dedicated I am to my art practice - having a studio has really shown me how valuable my practice is to me
no housework causing a distraction - that pile of laundry? out of sight - out of mind! When working from home my five hours set aside to paint gets chipped away at by dishes, laundry, hoovering and at the end of the day I realise I haven’t done all that much painting - this no longer happens. Now five hours dedicated to painting is exactly that! I love it.
community of like-minded people (although I don’t really speak to many of them because I’m awkward, but it’s nice to smile at them in the hallway)
open studio with other artists - so many, many, many times the marketing power
opportunities that I wouldn’t have on my own. Opportunites arise from being part of a larger community that I might not hear about otherwise
much, much better work-life balance. I still do the admin side of running a creative business from home, but I’m working less on weekends.
Cons:
have to travel an hour through London traffic to get there - it’s gruelling! I hate it.
can be a sterile environment - I need to find inspiration outside the studio through observational drawings, research, etc…in order to feed what’s going on inside th studio
have to prep food to take with me
the studio costs a lot of money
hard to find a good studio space in London that’s semi-affordable - it took me months of looking!
can’t have spontaneous, quick painting sessions
Overall I love my rented studio space. The pros have far outweighed the cons. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the unexpected things that I’ve learned - such as how important it is to me that I make the studio space work.
Also, I’d like to give a shout out to Wimbledon Art Studios - the staff that work there are the best - so kind and friendly especially while putting up with artists all day! I’m not sure I’d have the patience. If you are in the London area and looking for studio space, they are a good place to start as they have a lot of studios with varying degrees of natural and artificial light.