Layers 2
Feeding your soul
I wrote last week of capturing images in my minds-eye and living a life that reaches deeper, not wider. To do that I have learned to open myself to experience, to allow the potential to failure, to allow the need for rest, to be fully human.
I have been pondering what a life in layers means, the life that then inspires my layered art.
Balsamic Chocolate Blackberry dessert at The Land, Birmingham
Saying yes to life led me to a divinely beautiful meal at the end of last year. Celebrating an important anniversary led me to The Land in Birmingham where the food is all plant based and the way the food is put together reminded me of how I build the layers of my landscapes. I appreciated each mouthful as a work of edible art. Elevating my taste experience made me want to express myself more fully, more honestly in my art. Beauty feeds beauty and anything made with love inspires love. There is power in what we make and do. There is power in creativity.
I have talked before of time being non-linear, we spiral into it and some days pass more quickly than others, some times of our life last an age, others a moment. Creativity also spirals, sometimes elusive, other times connected and feeding your soul. Also last year I saw some new music, Hang Massive, layered and expansive, it paints pictures in my mind and fills my soul with colours.
As a new year gets underway, consider what you are feeding your inner artist. Consider where inspiration comes from and what nurtures you. How are all your senses involved in your process?
Helen Hallows - Layered mono-chrome landscape sketchbook
I post three free-to-read posts each month and a subscriber post that I publish on the first of every month. It’s a magazine style post where I share, over a three monthly cycle, inspirations, creative wellbeing advice, how to manage creative block and move to creative flow. In month two, I share lessons from my online courses in the form of a ‘dose’ of creativity to kickstart your sketchbook practice. Coming in 2025 are interviews with other artists as well as news from my studio and insights into my creative practice (in month 3). Join my tribe for £5 a month or £50 a year and get access to my previous posts too.
