Every studio needs a comfy chair

It is a fact that what every artist’s studio needs, as important as paint and paintbrush, is a comfy chair. Something large, into which one can sink whilst reflecting, contemplating, looking and from which one can launch oneself to pick up one’s brush and address the canvas.

For me, the act of painting is only a small part of the creative process. There are also long periods of sitting and thinking. And for this, I need a comfy chair.

I have two chairs – one is a large and very ancient Lloyd Loom chair. Its broad arm-rests allow me to balance notebooks, iPad, pens and books. The deep sides are convenient for wedging in books which can be pulled out at any moment for me to scan through as I muse on what needs to happen next.

My other chair is a less ancient, but still elderly, director’s chair. It is always filled with extra cushions, under which I stuff sheafs of paper and notebooks. Its slim wooden arm-rests allow me to lean over and rummage on cluttered surfaces for pens, pencils, scraps of paper – all essential ephemera for the complicated business of making notes, scribbling ideas and the occasional shopping list.

Comfort is the key: perching on a stool distracts the mind to the discomfort of precariously reaching to the floor with one foot, hard edges digging into the buttocks. One can lose oneself in a comfy chair: the mind relaxed to tackle the creative conundrum in hand.