A Year in the Studio // Notes from 2025

Photo Credit: Robin Mair

December 2025 marks two years since moving into the studio in Newhaven. While the intensity of those early months — ripping up carpets, painting walls, varnishing floors, pulling out thousands of staples, moving furniture and materials, and slowly finding homes for things — has eased, the work of holding a space doesn’t stop once the paint dries. A studio continues to be shaped by use, by people moving through it, and by the rhythms of making that take place inside it.

2025 has been a tough year, both personally and within the wider climate of working in the creative industries. For artists and small creative projects, the context has been challenging: funding pressures, rising costs, and the ongoing effort of making things sustainable without burning out. I don’t want to dwell on that here, but it forms part of the backdrop against which this year has unfolded.

Despite this, over the past year a large number of artists and participants have come through the studio. Some were new to drawing, returning after a long gap or picking it up for the first time. Others were more established, using classes or studio sessions to support portfolio development, refocus their practice, or make work alongside others. That mix — of experience levels, intentions, and ways of working — has remained one of the studio’s real strengths. What feels important, looking back, is what the studio is slowly becoming. The floor and walls now hold the marks of many makings — traces of repeated use rather than a pristine space kept in reserve.

Alongside regular classes, the studio has hosted workshops and short courses led by other artists. Supporting guest tutors to use the space, test ideas, and work with small groups has been an important part of how Look & Draw operates, even when running a broader programme hasn’t always been easy. The studio has also been used in unexpected ways, briefly becoming a film set for a staged life drawing session, reminding me that a space can hold multiple identities over time.

Looking back over 2025, this doesn’t feel like a year of big expansion or neat conclusions. It feels more like a year of holding and maintaining a space, supporting others to make work, adapting where necessary, and continuing to show up. In a difficult climate, that in itself feels worth marking.

I’m really looking forward to welcoming people back into the studio in the new year, and to continuing this slow, shared process of making and learning together.

Happy New Year, and here’s to many new drawing and making possibilities in 2026.