Looking back at the ASC Art House Open Studio in September 2019

In September the studios where I have space, organised an Open Studio event over a Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. There were 50+ creatives taking part and it was lovely to have the chance to show my work and working space. Many thanks to the team at ASC Art House Croydon for giving up their time to organise the event.

In the lead up to the event, I had a little bit of a tidy up! Even though I have had the space for a year now, I’m still working out the best place too have my desk and how to use the wall space as my unit is south facing so I get a lot of direct sunlight.

I decided to display some of the accordion sketchbooks which I’ve been using throughout the year and one of them was included in a group show held in the Art House foyer area.

On the Friday evening, we offered complimentary drinks and the Mayor of Croydon came along to make a speech and officially open the event. It was lovely to see so many people walking round the building, looking at the variety of work.

Saturday seemed more of a family time with lots of children amongst the visitors. It felt a very successful event and as a group we hope to hold another event in October 2020.

New studio space!

Lots of light!

It’s been almost two months since I moved into my new studio space. It’s still not Pinterest-ready (will it ever be?) but already it has helped me get more work done. It’s the first time that I’ve ever had a room of my own to work in. Over the years, I’ve worked mainly from home, either on the kitchen table or using a temporary desk in the front room. Most of the time this has worked okay but domestic restrictions mean that work has to be packed away at certain times and it’s difficult to separate work with home life.

Books and art materials 

I have tried a few other options. First sharing with local graphic designer which was great until rain kept on coming in and nothing seemed to be happening to fix the problem. I left there, moving to a desk space area on the top floor of an old building in Croydon Old Town. This worked okay but then the studio owner moved to a different venue and the new space didn’t really work for me. A desk space in a lighting designer’s studio was next. The space was okay with lots of natural light but it wasn’t the sort of place I’d like to stay on to work in the evening or at weekends.

Inspiration on the walls

Of course, the biggest concern from my point of view about renting space is the cost. So I was interested to hear about the new Artist Company Studios (ASC) being built in Croydon and the fact that they might be affordable for me. I’d heard about ASC from a couple of artists so had been on their email mailing list. Although I thought they would be quite a way out of town, I was pleasantly surprised when I went on the Open Day that they were quite close to transport links, had large windows and lots of extras including a communal kitchen and seating area. There is also a gallery area.

The Grand Entrance

On Friday the gallery holds its first exhibition, ‘40 degrees centigrade’ curated by Tabish Khan, art critic and Visual Arts Editor for The Londonist.

The PV will be open from 6 - 9pm. For more details, contact ASC by email at reception@ascstudios.co.uk or view their website.

I'm hoping the new space will allow me to be more productive so that I have time to experiment with new techniques too.