Over a hump

Change can happen fast and it can happen slow. I have been reflecting on creative change and how to grow and stay in flow. As I have said before, growth isn’t linear and ideas that are in your head don’t often become the same image on the page. There is a shifting and sometimes an awkward reckoning between intention and actuality. There’s a discomfort and either a sense of failure or a sense of achievement (and sometimes one then the other and then back again!).

Three years ago I filled a sketchbook with images that started to peel away from the landscapes I had created for ten years. The imagery became bigger and bolder, the mark making more direct and raw. But somehow when I tried to move these ideas beyond the sketchbook I stumbled. I would return to the safety net of earlier processes and outcomes but somehow they didn’t work so well now and I felt the discomfort of not feeling satisfied with my own output. There were some highs, some moments of ‘getting somewhere’ but often I would start a piece feeling brave, lose confidence along the way and end up overworking it, or over-cluttering it.

“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.”

Peter F. Drucker

This week I got over a hump. I saw an exhibition at Yorkshire Sculpture Park of the work of painter Carol Douglas. She uses shape and colour to create minimal paintings, expressing the raw bones of her subject. Having seen the way the tones resonate and the permission that less is more, I came home and gave myself permission to paint, to leave space, to let go of some of the clutter that had been getting in my way. I painted a tree image that had been in my mind and had a breakthrough. I hope to add to this series and re-find the joy in shape, colour and texture.

Golden Tree - Acrylic on Board

I will be taking this new piece, and some others on board to the Melbourne Festival Art and Architecture Trail on the 14th and 15th of September. You can read more of the event and other events I have coming up in my newsletter here.

---

What can you take away from this post?

• creative change happens slowly

• keep working despite the discomfort of failure

• it never looks like what is in your head

• keep looking for inspiration

• keep sketching

• enjoy when it all comes together easily, then get ready for the humps again!

Let me know what creative flow feels like for you.

---

If you enjoyed reading this and enjoy the meeting point of art and wellbeing; If you want to find your creative flow and stand in the infinite space of art making, you might like to subscribe to my monthly posts. Each month I connect to the season and share what is validating me, what inspires me. I offer a deeper space for reflection, and prompts to help you into a space of stillness, noticing and expression. Some months I will share a technique for your practice, other months I will be connecting with other artists and seeing how their practice brings them joy and what art and wellbeing mean to them. My subscriber post is emailed on the first of the month and I would love to share it with you. Join my community and together, let us create a web of wonderment.

If you like what you read, please click the ‘heart’ button and consider re-sharing this to your Substack notes. If you know someone who might enjoy my posts please forward it to them. And let me know what you think in the comments!