Where Ideas and Creativity Take Flight
Affectionately known as The Nest, Buffy’s creative space is a little unconventional. Rather than working at a traditional easel or studio desk, she creates most of her artwork from the safety and comfort of her bed, surrounded by her pastels, charcoal and brushes. One important addition to The Nest is “Kingie” — a much-loved 1970s cassette recorder that Buffy has owned since childhood and who now serves as her ASSET (Autism Sensory Support and Emotional Therapy) Companion. Kingie helps Buffy to regulate her world allowing her to stay calm and focused.
The Nest is a space adapted around the way she works best, where everything she needs can be kept close at hand and creativity can happen whenever inspiration strikes.
Doubling up as her Safe Space, The Nest is where photographs are browsed, ideas are explored and new techniques are discovered, often with several potential subjects waiting patiently for their turn. It is also where much of Buffy’s distinctive freehand approach has developed: beginning with observation, allowing a drawing to evolve naturally and resisting the need for everything to be planned in advance. From the first tentative marks to the final details, The Nest is where ideas hatch and creativity takes flight. ❤️
Buffy’s treasured Rembrandt soft pastels are never far from reach in The Nest! She much prefers working with pastel sticks rather than pencils. One of the things she loves most is how the sticks constantly change shape as she uses them. Their sides, edges and corners gradually wear and evolve, giving her an ever-changing variety of marks, textures and effects that she simply cannot achieve in quite the same way with pencils.
This allows Buffy to work freely and intuitively, responding to the shapes and textures she sees without interrupting the natural flow of her drawing. For her, it’s all part of the freedom and spontaneity of Expressive Realism.
With Buffy spending around 90% of her time in The Nest, it can sometimes appear a little chaotic. However, this familiar, enclosed environment helps her feel safe, secure and comfortable.
Wide, open spaces can leave Buffy feeling uncomfortable and lost, so she instinctively creates a cosy, cocoon-like space around herself. What may look like clutter to others is, for Buffy, a reassuring sense of comfort and security.
The Nest is also where Buffy feels most creatively free. Surrounded by familiar things, with everything she needs close at hand, she can relax, shut out the distractions of the outside world and become completely absorbed in her artwork. She often describes this as being in her ultimate “Flow State” it is here that her creativity flows most naturally, allowing her to work instinctively and expressively, without pressure or interruption.
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