Hotwalls studio visit

A couple of weeks ago with my Illustration course, I visited Hotwalls studios. Its location, next to the sea, makes these studios an ideal place for tourists and locals to visit. This unique place was once used as the city’s historic fortifications but has now been turned into thirteen working studios and a waterfront dining space. The studios each house a different artist, each with individual styles and techniques which make this an especially interesting place to visit as you see so many different artists at work.

The studios not only function as a place for the artists to work, but as a shop for them each to profit from their creations. One studio in particular interested me; Ruth Lacey's watercolour studio. In my style I often end up working with watercolour so I felt that I related the most to her work space. She has made great use of the space in her studio, part of it being a work space with a table and desks and other parts for storage. While visiting her studio she was working on a commission of a blackbird.

The spaces have so much character, there is a window running through each studio so although they are individual rooms, each is connected. Their historical significance means that the artists cannot alter the space too much, however each has a different feel to it as they are full of different styles of art.

If I had a studio here, I would use it much the same as most of the artists now. I would work on personal projects as well as commissions in my studio and would use the studio as a shop to sell some of my artwork.