Keeping it simple so we can work from anywhere (even bed)

I was recently asked to take a photo of my desk for this lovely blog.

I was pleased to take part, but felt I would have been a bit of a fraud photographing my studio desk, because over the last month or so I’ve hardly worked there at all. In fact for the past few weeks I’ve been doing most of my work from the comfort of my bed!

I’m very lucky that I can work from bed when necessary. Over the years I’ve simplified the type of work that I do, and the ways that I do it, so that I make bed my office and my studio when I need to. It’s been a long process, but one that I’m so pleased to have gone through.

Two questions to help you simplify

If you would like to simplify the way you work so you can work from anywhere (even bed!) then I think there are two questions that you need to ask yourself:

1. What is the core of what you do and
2. What are the least amount of tools you need to do this core work?

For me the answers to these questions have changed over the years, but asking them started my on the path to where I am now. When I first started to question what my core work was, I was painting very large landscapes (and exhausting myself in the process). At the time I had an excellent teacher, also a landscape painter, who was for a while studioless and unable to work on or store large canvases. For a while she worked on small square pieces of paper using children’s crayons. These little works eventually built up into a large exhibition of exquisite mini-landscapes.

Seeing her work this way, taking the core of what she did (making landscapes) and simplifying down the tools she needed to make them with (a small square of paper and a box of crayons) was a huge inspiration to me. My reasons for downsizing what I did were different, but I could suddenly see the possibilities. I realised I could still make art without the expensive of a large studio and more importantly without draining my limited energy reserves and damaging my health.

Keep the “small” option in your back pocket (literally!)

The beauty of working out how you can distill down what you do and how you do it to its essential core is that it gives you a wonderful tool in your working arsenal. It doesn’t mean you need to work small all the time, but having the option means you can always find ways to be creative and get on with your Important Work, even at times of very low energy or when you’re very short on time.

Perhaps, if you’re very clever you could even find a way to distill your tools down to something that would fit in your pocket. Why not give it a go?

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