It’s been a particularly busy month in the studio, breaking my creative block of the previous few months when there was so much other stuff going on in my life that I didn’t have the capacity to drop into that creative zone. Plus I've been running art classes during May which have been super enjoyable.
Painting for me is as essential as breathing for maintaining my balance and wellbeing but when life gets busy, I sometimes struggle to relax enough to let creativity flow. A wicked paradox when it’s that which I need most! When I head to the studio, I need time to shift my mindset: to step out of being a mum and step away from the daily tasks of living. I need to let my mind and soul settle in solitude. Sometimes with silence, sometimes with background music. Often by breathing and stretching to release tension. Sometimes by reading a book or listening to a story. It’s different every time but most importantly, I need to allow myself permission to pause and let everything fade to insignificance whilst I focus on the movement and feel of mixing & applying paint.
The catalyst for this recent spurt of activity was the generosity of another lovely local artist who gifted me a big pile of loose, unwanted canvas as part of decluttering her studio. I don’t usually paint on loose canvas - preferring pre stretched canvas ready to hang - but in this case, as it was free and in abundance, I figured I could just tear off large pieces and just ‘have at it’ without the pressure of feeling like I had to finish anything or paint something ‘good’.
This allowed me just the right mental freedom to play large and loose - large brush strokes, big fluid puddles, messy hands smearing the paint across canvas, working with loads of gorgeous saturated colours and really using the full stretch of my body to fill those blank spaces. Since those first vibrant orange brush strokes, my studio has literally been dripping in rainbows as one after the other, loose abstract landscape paintings have been coaxed into life!
First came freedom of expression with intuitive painting, next will come the more mindful, intentional painting process where I’ll make considered choices to complete the compositions.
I’m not alone in facing creative block it seems. I’ve been hosting Artist Drop in Session “Coffee & Create” where other artists come along to my studio with a small selection of their own supplies and we work on our own little projects whilst we chat. The discussion of what causes creative block and how to overcome it has come up several times. The biggest two culprits of this paralysing condition are
The solutions of course are seemingly easy but so hard to consciously implement. Sometimes we just have to give ourselves permission to play. These artist drop in sessions have been doing exactly that and have successfully released a few of my visiting artists from their creative block. They've then gone home and started painting beautiful pieces once more! For me, the change needed to come from not worrying about wasting materials.
As we approach Open Studios Art Trail in July, I’m becoming aware that not one of my new paintings are finished for sale but there is a distinct similarity between them and I have faith they’ll come together into a beautiful series called Surrender - aptly named after giving myself over to the creative process without fear or expectation.
If you’d like to see these paintings, please pop along during the Art Trail and see where I’ve got with them. Plus you can view all my other paintings for sale from previous collections. I’m at Studio 19 on the map, open July 1-9th, 11am-4.40pm weekdays, 10am-6pm weekends. You can also view and buy a selection of my artwork at the group exhibits at Dean Heritage Centre and The Secret Gallery in Newent. I'll be sending more info soon to my email subscribers but here's a link for details and opening times in the meantime.
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