Lighting and shop design

["Clive Murray-White" <clivemw@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Hi all,

I've been following all the mail traffic but have been too busy to join in
and have been itching to say a few words about studio/workshop design.

Lighting:

I know common or traditional art thinking has always been to avoid Southern
light in the Northern hemisphere and Northern in the Southern, my view is
that is a painting tradition and as such makes sense. I chose to build my
studio facing due North ie into the sun, multiple sky lights and large
roller door for light, the reasoning behind this was that an ever changing
light source would always pick up weaknesses in form etc. I do have movable
lights hanging from my overhead omni directional gantry crane, these allow
me to pour light onto any area that I need to, usually so that I can see
what I'm doing or to find unwanted faceting.

I purposely avoided having a concrete floor, very uncomfortable if you are
working every day, and worse still next to useless if you need to move
wheeled objects around on it as you need to sweep up every stone chip
everytime you want to move anything. The overhead built-in gantry  crane
means that I can move anything anywhere, I don't have to worry about stone
chips and if the whole thing get a bit too uneven I just rake it.

I built the workshop over the top of three existing concrete piers 3ft high
and about 10ft long, an industrial tank stand and used this as the basis of
an extremely strong work bench/table, 10 x 12 ft sq, this serves 2 purposes,
it is my only completely flat area and it means I can work on several things
of varying size at the same time.

I also have a large covered outdoor area and a very big yard.

Sure everything is very practical but the most important feature is that it
is a very beautiful place to work, the yard is in fact an orchard, the
barrier between me and the roadway is a row of very tall cypress trees and
my "driveway" is cut through these trees,  giving me a view of a large
mountain range in the background with rolling dairy country leading up to
them.

I have worked in the city but for me nothing can beat the perfect rural
workplace and apart from anything else probably 1/4 the cost.

The quality of the space that you work in has huge bearing on the way you
work. Sure there is useful advice but I'm a great believer in the idea that
one's workspace must be driven by one's own personality.

Regards to all
Clive Murray-White
Web: www.cowwarr.com