My studio is a converted patio.  We used to eat our dinners there ‘al fresco’ in the summer months.  It was home to the barbeque and a nice place to take your coffee and chat on the phone.

Then I started painting.  For a year I worked on the dining room table and eventually, it became apparent that I needed somewhere to paint larger, to be able to leave my paints out and not have to pack everything away whenever we ate soup or had guests.

My eyes naturally averted to the living room which no one ever uses.  A lovely bright room with lots of natural light and two large walls which could be handily converted to painting walls for large canvases.

HIS eyes took me outside to the patio.

So the patio it was.

The idea of sacrificing the lovely living room to paint was unthinkable apparently. (It’s a lovely room but has no TV - so apart from sitting down for a chat or a quiet moment it gets no use.  But it has to remain just in case….

After an investment in retractable blinds to close in the patio I was ushered outside to my new studio.

The barbeque was removed, a painting wall with screws erected for me to hook my panels onto, a catering trolley was purchased, soon swiftly followed by a hairdresser’s trolley for storing paints.  A few dropcloths on the floor and a rubber mat to stand on while I paint et voila – we have a studio.

The outdoor table with 6 chairs remains because he thought we’d still eat in there in the summer.  (That’s happened once when we had guests and I tidied up.)

I share my studio with littering of autumn leaves which blow in under the blinds, there is a healthy haze of cobwebs in every corner and a few skinks that slither under the dropcloths – I don’t think I’ve ever stood on one?  Recently we discovered that a rat (or two… or five?) was taking refuge behind the painting wall.  Imagine my horror!!  So now I have added checking the rat-traps to my morning ritual as I enter the studio to paint.

There is also a pile of snail shells behind that wall which is unreachable to clear out…. 

But when I have my music on, a canvas on the wall and my palette swimming in wet paint the mess, the skinks, the spiders, and the rats are not even a thing – kind of.  It’s great to have this place to walk into, scoop out the paint and get started and then when I’ve had enough or the sun or life’s demands tell me it’s time to stop, I pop a cover on my palette and walk away.

Would I love to have a spacious light-filled room with cupboards, drawers, and insulation?  Of course.  Would I like to be 10 or 20 years younger?  Of course.

Are dreams free?  Yes.

I’m grateful I get to do what I love – how lucky am I?