Disclosure – this is a collaborative post

From painting marvellous moonscapes to constructing sensational sculptures, getting creative outside hits different. Being an artist is a glorious part of an identity, but one of the downsides can come from too much time spent inside.

How to Create the Perfect Outdoor Art Space

As artists, we dedicate a lot of our lives to reinterpreting the world, often in beautiful ways. Being able to combine art with time spent outside is a great tool in keeping grounded and balanced.

Rooftop Space

If you’re fortunate enough to have a private rooftop space or balcony that you can work from, you’ll likely be blessed with a unique view of where you live. Rooftop spaces are ideal for artists. Benefiting from being outside, with the world to inspire you, you also have the elevation to keep your space more private.

The additional height also adds a feeling of freedom, as you watch birds dipping and soaring among the rooftops – you too may feel a release from the limitations of your creativity.

Rooftops can get a lot of direct sunlight and rain, so it’s a good idea to get some kind of shelter to protect you from the elements. If you miss the feeling of nature, you could try laying artificial grass on the roof so you can have a year-round lawn to work from.

Great decorations for roofs include CD mobiles, birdhouses and mosaic tiling.

Garden

Maybe you’re blessed with a gorgeous, green, outdoor space. These can be ideal for sculptors as the additional mess of sculpting can be easier cleaned in the garden, particularly if you’re using natural materials.

To make the most of your garden as an art space, you can install a patio or decking to place your easel or art equipment. You should also spend some time gardening and clearing any areas that obstruct your view.

Flowers are great for inspiration, evoking romantic feelings and sitting close to emotions of love, loss, heartbreak, passion, beauty and grief. Surrounding yourself by flowers can really help you to connect to your inner feelings and channel them into your art.

Yard

A yard may not seem like the most inspiring space, particularly if it’s flat concrete. However, any outside space can be perfect for making art if you use a little imagination and DIY magic. The inner-city scope of a yard offers a different inspiration to artwork than luscious gardens or freeing rooftops.

This is a good setting for some kitchen sink realism and capturing the gritty realities of urban life. You may find all you need is some charcoal and a sketchpad to capture a true cityscape.

That shouldn’t stop you from engineering the space to benefit your art style. You can still use flowerpots to grow beautiful flowers and create an inner-city haven. Try painting brick walls or concrete with bright colours to create a strong contrast to the outside world. 

On the Move

You can create art wherever you are in the world. There may be more limitations to creating art on the move, but it’s still a great and valid place to work. There’s something so glorious about seeing something so mesmerising that you need to sit down and recreate it with pencil or paint.

You can find fold-away easels that can fit in a backpack. Or, if you have a van or a car, you can fit it out to hold all of your equipment.

Make Art Where You Can

Even if you don’t make an outside space for your art and continue to do it inside, the most important thing is to keep creating. We live in an increasingly fractured world and artists help us to see things more clearly in troubling times.