Welcome to the 299th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists on different continents speak the language of oil paint.
Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us through this form! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your home studio.
How long have you been working in this space?
Three years.
Describe an average day in your studio.
I try to paint every day, usually in the quiet of the mornings and again in the late evenings. I prefer working on one piece at a time and tend to get completely absorbed in it until it’s finished — I find it hard to rest until then. My studio routine is relaxed yet focused. I often listen to classical music while I paint, though at times I enjoy chatting with friends on the phone as I work on the finer details of a piece.
How does the space affect your work?
The light in my studio each morning sets the tone for my work — it’s soft, quiet, and full of promise. The studio faces the road, and I find a gentle rhythm in observing people pass by — walking, running, cycling — each carrying a story of their own. That quiet movement outside contrasts with the stillness inside, grounding me as I paint. The space itself is both a sanctuary and a source of inspiration.
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?
Outside my studio, I often take walks through the neighborhood — it’s a way for me to reset and observe the little moments that inspire my work. The changing light, passing conversations, or a quiet corner can all spark ideas. While my immediate surroundings aren’t part of a formal art district, there’s a small but growing creative community nearby. I stay connected through local exhibitions, open studios, and occasional workshops, which offer a sense of shared purpose and quiet encouragement.
What do you love about your studio?
The natural light in the mornings fills the room with warmth, and there’s something comforting about the familiar sounds from the road outside — subtle reminders of life moving gently around me. It’s a deeply personal space that holds my thoughts, experiments, and quiet moments of discovery.
What do you wish were different?
While I cherish the calm and light in my studio, I sometimes wish it had a bit more space — both for storing finished work and for stepping back to view larger pieces from a distance. As I am starting to work on bigger paintings, I feel the space constraint and wish for a bigger storage space at times.
What is your favorite local museum?
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Oil.
How long have you been working in this space?
Almost 35 years.
Describe an average day in your studio.
I walk the two miles across the city to my studio six to seven days a week. I work from 11am until 7pm, so take plenty of food with me! I work on several large paintings at once and, like many artists, find that the best looking and decision making is done when concentrating on a different painting. As a result of unexpectedly falling in love with Venice in 2017, I now work there for two to three months every autumn, either en plein air or on the terrace of the small rented apartment. These works inform the large paintings and drawings I make back in my studio in Sunderland.
How does the space affect your work?
It’s a big space, 30 by 40 feet, lit by a west-facing window augmented with strip lighting. It’s okay, but my work looks better, more brilliantly colored, even dazzling, when it is taken outside in full daylight before being trucked to galleries — a real confidence boost. Not that this happens often enough nowadays! The studio, in a large, former schoolroom, has 24-foot-high walls that allow me to raise my nine-foot-high paintings up for more comfortable working. I use my collection of street-found chairs of differing heights for the purpose. The space allows me to work on six large paintings at the same time and to rehearse how a show “hangs.”
How do you interact with the environment outside your studio?
The Sunniside area of the city is considered unsafe by many people, but not me. There are now a couple of thriving café-music venues, a restored Victorian square that hosts a monthly food market, and new affordable housing is being built on a cleared site. A theatre company, two dance schools, and a gym operate in the vicinity of the studio. Having worked in this area for many years, I know lots of the local street people who always offer to lend a hand when they see me struggling with heavy items such as rolls of canvas.
What do you love about your studio?
A personal condition of moving from London to take up a position at the art school here in 1990 was that I improve on the amount of studio space that I could afford. My space, on the first floor of a former school building, was a dream come true and the reason why I have stayed here ever since. Situated on what was the main business street of a formerly busy port and manufacturing city, the area has undergone not entirely successful regenerations since the 1990s. My space, alongside that of the five other artists in the Villiers Street Studio Group, has no heating, but I can make a mess and have good standing space to see my large paintings. The bouncy wooden floor is a gift now that I have dodgy knees.
What do you wish were different?
I wish that the landlord had carried out a basic level of maintenance on this Grade 2 listed building as requested over the last 35 years to prevent water ingress from broken gutters and downpipes, so that the imminent major renovation could have been avoided. This threatened renovation, although a good thing for the building and the area, will no doubt render us, the oldest studio group in the city, without a space to work — isn’t this what happens everywhere?
What is your favorite local museum?
There are several small art and local history museums in the North-East of England. The Baltic Centre in Gateshead, not far from the famed “Angel of the North” sculpture by Antony Gormley, has interesting and often provocative contemporary shows. My favorite venue in the area is the Hepworth in Wakefield, a beautiful, brilliantly sited and thoughtful building designed by David Chipperfield. It contains a collection of the late Barbara Hepworth’s work and studio artifacts. The main draw for me is their excellent and relevant contemporary art exhibitions.
What is your favorite art material to work with?
Oil paint is “my” medium. I have used it for over 60 years. It is the material I think in and with. I use colors from a variety of top-quality brands and often make my own from dry pigments. Oil paint has many essential qualities: I can accurately and easily mix any color I need, and most importantly, the color does not change at all from wet to dry states, which I find acrylic paint does. Oil paint is endlessly versatile, has great presence, and always feels alive. The downside is cleaning brushes and palettes! When I work in Italy, I work on paper using watercolour and gouache.
