Getting Creative With At-Home Artist Studios

Having a space of one’s own can be a critical variable in the creative process.“You need to be able to concentrate, contemplate, to dream if you want. That’s how ideas come about,” said Virginia Jaramillo, an abstract painter, whose work is in the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She and her husband, Daniel LaRue Johnson, a sculptor in stainless steel and a painter as well, know all too well the importance of having their own spaces.

“My studios have always been a place of experimentation,” said Mr. Johnson, whose work is first modeled in small form in wood or paper before being fabricated on a large scale at a foundry. His sculptures have been installed outdoors in various parts of the country, including an obelisk titled “Peace Form One” across the street from the United Nations.

After the couple moved into their Hamptons Bays home two and a half years ago, they built an extension off their house and designed two artist studios, one for each of them.

“We try to stay out of each other’s pocket, as we say … making art is a solitary endeavor, and you want to be able to get into your own space mentally without interruptions,” said Ms. Jaramillo.

Married for more than 50 years, the couple first met in high school, although the courtship started after graduation.

Eventually, they moved to New York City, where they spent 40 years together in a 5,000-square-foot loft in Soho. “We were both really spoiled,” Ms. Jaramillo said about the mammoth loft they had grown accustomed to. But the neighborhood they had first moved to in 1969 changed dramatically over the decades.

Between crowds of people and late-night revelers, “You couldn’t even walk on the sidewalks, it was so packed with tourists. It just became alien to us. This was not what we came here for.”

“The city is about getting yourself together as a young person and working through middle age and older,” said Mr. Johnson. “It’s great for writers, musicians, artists who are just starting out in their teens, 20s and 30s, but after a while your demands have other kinds of formulas, at least for me.”

The couple started looking at houses on the East End, 41 houses to be exact. Guiding her clients from one property to the next, their real estate agent, Rosie Reese, had just one more place to show them. And when the couple set their eyes on the three-bedroom, three-bath, split-level ranch in Hampton Bays, “I looked at this house and said, ‘Yup, this is it.’ I didn’t even have to go in!” Ms. Jaramillo said.

The property’s main selling point was the extra lot that came with it, and thus the ability to build their studios.

After shedding some decades’ worth of sundries they had accumulated, they moved out of the city and into their new, albeit smaller, abode.

Next on the list was constructing the addition, and Ms. Jaramillo had a few non-negotiables in mind when it came to design. There had to be an abundance of natural light and enough uninterrupted space in which to work.

She shared her ideas with architect Chris Profeta, “who was able to put all my dreams together and make it a cogent reality,” said Ms. Jaramillo. Meanwhile, their contractor, Joe Burns, kept the project on schedule. “This never would’ve happened without them.”

Each studio is about 26 feet wide by 30 feet tall, with two skylights apiece, each of those 6 by 3 feet. A hallway with a full bathroom and an office connects the two studios.

“I wanted it to look industrial, because it’s not a house,” said Ms. Jaramillo. That meant no domicile details such as molding. Also, the windows had to be installed higher up, at least 13 feet. “That way I wouldn’t have to worry about window space. I could hang the paintings and work on them and still have light coming through,” said Ms. Jaramillo.

Vertical beams were also prohibited, as they too would interrupt the space, so Ms. Jaramillo had two steal beams installed across the ceiling in each studio.

The results are two bright, spacious and industrial-style studios filled with all the trappings one would expect artists to have—brightly colored paintbrushes and palettes, assorted tools and works of art in various stages of completion. They are the offices of creatives.

“After being in the city for 40 years, to come to a beautiful place like this where it’s really quiet, I mean, there is a chance to really form my thoughts about specific colors and shapes without feeling a bit rushed,” said Mr. Johnson. “I’m very pleased with where we are now.”