Canberra Artist Studio With Creative Timber Features
December 2022
This art studio is a creative haven for two Canberra artists, Colin Edgell and his son Aden. Engaging Ben Leeson from Leeson Carpentry for the job, they used recycled hardwoods from Thor’s Hammer to create this purpose-built, quirky studio where they now spend time every day creating watercolour masterpieces. Featuring salvaged flooring from a primary school gymnasium creatively laid on the ceiling, a shiplap cladding exterior left untreated to grey over time, and resourceful use of leftover timber with a wall-mounted easel and small storage shed and EV charging station. In our Canberra workshop, we also built a custom Oregon workbench and a rustic outdoor benchseat that sits pretty right outside the studio.
After a career change from law to art, Colin needed a space that he and his son Aden—also an artist—could paint in peace.
Having extended the house a few times previously, Colin and his wife Denise thought they were done with renovation. That was until Colin quit his job as a lawyer and he and Aden started painting.
They soon realised that painting inside the house wasn’t going to be an option, and set about demolishing their old carport to make space for their own, small artist studio.
“The studio is really a dream space for us. I think every artist would really like to have a big studio where they can make a lot of mess. With the cost of building that’s really only something very successful artists can afford. For the way my son and I work (modest sized paintings on paper) a smaller studio is fine—especially when it’s so full of light and well built!
We try to spend some time every day in the studio—the studio is set up so that both of us can work at one time or separately. We are planning to have a joint exhibition of our paintings in Canberra in 2023.”
Colin said that Ben Leeson went above and beyond in getting this project completed, and even utilised the leftover salvaged flooring and shiplap cladding materials from the studio build to create a wall-mounted artists’ easel and outdoor storage shed.
“We really enjoyed working with Ben - he did a great job and was always very calm, thoughtful and great to deal with.”
An important part of the brief was minimising waste, which is where Colin and Ben opted for timber from Thor’s Hammer; “Having done some building work before we realised how wasteful the process can be so we liked the idea of using recycled material and the wood from Thor’s Hammer is both sturdy and beautiful.”
SALVAGED FLOORING CEILING & WALL-MOUNTED EASEL
Resembling an artwork itself, the studio’s ceiling is created using Ash salvaged flooring from an old basketball court at St Luke’s Primary School in North Curl Curl in Sydney. Colin loved the gym floor markings and said they reminded him of the works of well known Canberra artist Rosalie Gascoigne.
Ben Leeson designed and made the unique wall-mounted easel for Colin and Aden, which they use for bigger work that doesn’t fit comfortably on the custom Oregon workbench. It’s made from the leftover pieces of salvaged flooring from the ceiling.
TIMBER SPECIES Ash
SOURCED FROM St Luke’s Primary School in North Curl Curl, Sydney
FINISH Untreated
SIZE 60 x 18mm
QUANTITY 17m2
EXTERIOR SHIPLAP CLADDING
The shiplap cladding used to wrap the studio’s exterior walls allows the small building to melt into its surroundings. Colin and Ben decided to leave it unfinished so that it will slowly go grey over time, adding to the rustic, cabin-like feel they were going for, and to blend in with the nearby wooden fencing.
Leftover cladding was cleverly utilised by Ben to build a small storage shed under Colin’s new carport, which includes an EV charging station.
TIMBER SPECIES Blackbutt / Dense Browns
SOURCED FROM Sydney house roof timbers
FINISH Clean
SIZE 78 x 18mm
OREGON WORKBENCH
We built this workbench for the studio using Oregon (Douglas Fir), a fine-grained hard softwood with very few knots. We had beautiful visions of the patina that would develop from years of painting with watercolours on the bench but when we checked in with Colin, he said this: “Our oregon workbench is so nice that so far we cover it up when we work so that we don’t get paint on it!”
TIMBER SPECIES Oregon
SOURCED FROM The Rathbone, Surrey Hills, NSW
FINISH Raw and uncoated
SIZE 150 x 50mm
T-BENCH
We made this T-Bench from Dense Reds to sit outside the studio, but this bench is suitable for indoor use as well. It has a sturdy oil finished steel base that will gently rust over time (but won’t affect durability), matching the rustic and weathered vibe of the greying shiplap cladding beside it. Colin’s family uses the bench for a variety of everyday activities; “unpacking shopping, doing gardening, drinking tea…”
TIMBER SPECIES Dense Reds
SOURCED FROM Queensland house demolitions
SIZE 2000 x 356 x 435mm
Colin & Aden’s watercolouR painting
Colin and Aden are both painters who do mostly watercolour figurative (i.e. non-abstract) painting. They are inspired by painters Peter Doig, Sydney Nolan and Chris Ofili, and are planning on holding a joint exhibition of their paintings in Canberra in 2023. View some of their pieces below.
Artwork provided by Colin and Aden Edgell
Artwork provided by Colin and Aden Edgell
Artwork provided by Colin and Aden Edgell
Photography by Rohan Thomson
Written by Ellie Keft