The use of the studio

Google defines the term studio as: a room where an artist, photographer, sculptor etc works. Also : A place where performers, especially dancers, practice and exercise.

Artists need studios as they need a space to work. The use of this studio differs with different media, for example the amount of space needed. A sculptor will most likely need more space than a painter who does small scale water colours as they need space to store their materials and build their work. 

Our studio is a place of work and we produce artwork within our studio spaces. It is a place to generate ideas and also a place to exhibit work.

In Norwich every year we have an open studios event where participating artists open their studios to the public. I looked round Muspole Workshops were there is a cluster of artists working in small separate spaces. The artist Martin Mitchell has a studio there. His space is slightly larger than the other studios I saw because he specialises in printmaking and therefore needs room for a printing press, plates, woodcuts and raw materials and chemicals.

Whilst researching the costs of studios I read a report called London Digest  a survey of artists studio groups and organisations in London March 2006 from a national survey conducted by Acme Studios in 2004 and I discovered that rents for studio spaces in London are most expensive nationally at average rent being £7.54 per square foot per year which is nearly £215 a month for an average size studio.

In contrast Muspole Workshops in Norwich rents start from £70 per calendar month and includes business rates, building maintenance, management costs and water charges. There are many benefits to working within a studio organisation including:

• Company; in can get lonely working by yourself.
• You can gain feedback from other artists.
• They can provide you with inspiration and artists to research.
• Group exhibitions can easily be organised.

However there are some drawbacks:

• The studio must be kept clean and you are limited to your assigned space.
• Equipment might be required to be shared.

Life Drawing Model Sitting On A Chair

Life Drawing Woman Standing With Chair

In this Life Drawing Session to teach us not to be precious with our work we drew on our own work for ten minutes and then walked around the room rubbing out parts of peoples drawings, redrawing and reworking them creating interesting blurred images.

What is Art?

The boundaries of what is art and what is not art are very blurred in contemporary art whereas with traditional art it is very clear, most people can appreciate it's beauty. Traditional art serves a purpose; a painting or drawing of a landscape would be to describe the area for other people, portraits of Kings would be made to show the subjects what they look like, posters would be created to incite uprisings and paintings of narrative would be created to communicate stories to those  who could not read (mainly religious narrative).

Universally art is a means of communication, and that is true of contemporary art, however what contemporary art communicates is a concept. Often people criticize contemporary art saying that they can do that, but the point is that they did not; they did not have the creativity or skill to think of that concept. The artist Damien Hirst is renowned for his use of assistants and is criticized for it, however as long as he still creates the concept of his work he is still an artist.