flat storage

I've never had a proper place to store my artwork. In the past I've just used large, corrugated cardboard folders that I kept wedged behind furniture.  When we bought our house last summer and I found myself with an entire room to use as my studio, the first piece of furniture I wanted to get was flat files. I quickly discovered that the real ones were out of my price range, and I wan't able to track down any used ones.

Ikea ended up having something that suited my needs perfectly; it also fit my budget.  The shallow drawers are not quite wide enough to fit large sheets of watercolour paper, but since I mostly work smaller than that it's the right size to hold my original art. It also tucks right in under the table that my scanner and printer sit on.

I finally bought and assembled it a few weeks ago.

Could that be art prints peeking out of the drawer? More on that later :)

january update

Things have been quite chaotic lately, but everything is finally starting to come together...

After much deliberation, my husband and I decided to move back to our former city, Calgary. We just moved into an apartment and are still getting settled, but most of the boxes are unpacked and we now have a phone and internet connection. It feels so good to have a home again! Traveling was exciting and inspiring and such an incredible learning experience, but constantly moving from place to place for a year and a half is also quite exhausting. It's nice to know that we'll be here for a while now, as we recharge our batteries and save up for our next adventure.

Our apartment is big enough that I have a studio space again. It's nothing fancy but it's something I didn't think I'd have so I'm really excited about it. I've missed having a place to work where I could spread out and where I didn't have to be putting my supplies away all the time.

It's good to be back :)

My studio

I'm currently working on a couple of pieces, but I'm not ready to post those. In the mean time, I just cleaned my studio so I thought I'd take a few pictures of the space I use to do my work.

I used to have this whole room to myself. Back then I had my drawing table, a desk for my computer and an other desk just for working at. However, my fiancé (his name is Dario) recently moved in with me so I had to lose a couple desks and half of the room. But I still have more than enough space - although I wish I didn't have to use my drawing table as a desk. It was a good trade off though. Dario is really creative and it's nice to have someone to bounce ideas off. So far the arrangement is working out very well.



Here's a closer look at the inspiration board above my drawing table.





I keep all of my art supplies in the cabinet against the far wall.



The paint brushes I'm currently using...



And there's Dario on his side of the room. I think he's pretending to work.



That's all. I hope you enjoyed the tour!