On Having a Studio Space that does NOT look like something out of the pages of a magazine

One of the questions I often get asked is - "where do you create".

I would love to say in "my gorgeous and fabulously large studio" ......

but the honest answer is - 

 in my lounge room. 

My art space area,  which also doubles as a work-out area (note treadmill)

and from another angle you can also see that it also works as  

an office space (see far top right of the picture) and an entertaining area (tv)

A little background about me and my family -
my husband works for a mining company in a fairly remote town  in Western Australia
and so therefore we rent a house from the company he works for.
We have a 3 bedroom house and two children, so we don't have a spare room.
I have a little storage room attached to the side of the house where I store all of my supplies,
but unfortunately it is very dark and a bit too small to create art in.

We are lucky in that our lounge room/kitchen/dining area is all open plan,
so we manage to all fit into this one little area quite comfortably
and the lighting is pretty good in here (which I am very thankful for).

So after all of this waffle, I guess the point I'm trying to make here is this -
don't let space hinder you from not living the creative life you want to live.
Sure when people rock up to my house, they see my crap lying around everywhere
and my house never looks like anything out of a Better Homes and Gardens Magazine,
but I guess for me, I've never been about that sort of living anyway.
I would much rather live an authentic life, doing what makes my soul happy,
 than have an immaculate house that I've spent all day cleaning.

And I have to admit it's kind-a cool too, that when people do pop around for a cuppa,
 they can see straight away what I'm working on and
quite often will give me their feedback (good or bad lol). 

I could also talk about making time to create
on here
but that is a question for another post on another day.

 So for now I will leave you with these images of a few famous creatives and their studio's. 

Roald Dahl - Children's Book Author (photo courtesy of the guardian uk)

Virginia Woolf, Novelist (photo courtesy of the guardian uk)

Nigella Lawson - Food Writer

Ok Ok I'll admit it, if I could,
I would give up my second born to have a studio like the one below
(especially if it was overlooking water)

Willem de Kooning’s studio – East Hampton, New York

Swoon!!