Are You Stuck with Your Art?
If you ever feel stuck or frustrated with the work you're making, this video is for you. I've been there and I know how you feel - but I also know that it's totally possible to get past the stuck feeling and create exciting, unique work that feels like you ...To sign up for the free workshop mentioned in this video (and join my special private Facebook group), click HERE.
Text of Video
A few years ago, I felt totally stuck with my work. I wanted to create exciting abstract landscapes but I had no idea how to do it. I thought that other people had some secret sauce that I didn’t have. That they had been born with a special talent that I was missing. At the time I was making detailed pen and ink drawings and creating watercolour portraits of cows. I love cows and other people liked the paintings I made of cows, so it seemed rewarding to do that and for a little while it was. But I knew something was missing. Yes, people bought the cows, but is what I really wanted to do?
So I felt stuck. I was good at drawing in ink and I was good at painting watercolour cow portraits – I even ventured into acrylics and collage. But I wanted to make abstract landscapes.
When I tried, the results were a million miles away from what I saw in my head.I became so discouraged that I stopped painting for a while. I wish I had known that there was actually nothing wrong with me. I wish I had known that all I needed was to keep working and to find a few good teachers who could help me.
You see I believe that the artist we are meant to be is already inside us. There are clues in your current work that point the way to where you are meant to go, to the paintings you are supposed to be making. It might be the colours you choose, or the subject matter, or the way you applied paint in one tiny corner of a painting. I don’t know where those clues lie for you but I do know this … you find them in the places that feel the best.
What I mean by that is that your soul or your intuition if you prefer, or that deeper part of yourself, already knows what to do. You are getting in the way. You are thinking and worrying and stressing and projecting. You are looking at a failed painting and making it mean something about you ("that painting is crap. Therefore I am crap. I have no talent, I should just go back to baking cakes"). Wait … That might just have been my internal voice!
You may also have other voices layered on top of yours. The remembered voices of your parents ("that won't pay the bills") or the dismissive remarks of a partner or a family member.
But somewhere - buried under that huge pile of expectations and dismissive comments, and remembered admonishments, and self-criticism… somewhere under there is YOU. The artist. The one who knows exactly what to do.
So how do we get to the bottom of that pile and find out who we really are?
I don’t claim to have got there myself – but I am WAY closer than I was. I think there were 3 keys to how I did it:
I kept showing up. If the clues are always in the work we’ve already made, we need to make lots more in order to keep discovering
I started to pay attention to myself – to notice what I love in life and in art and to analyse why. I know that I love abstract landscapes, but why? And which ones appal most? Why? What appeals to us is speaking to that deeper part of ourselves and it’s that we need to tap into.
I found good teachers. It didn’t take many – I found 3 people who opened doors through the way they taught. Lesley Birch in York, who showed me the power of playing with materials without expectation. Alice Sheridan, who shared her struggles and successes openly and generously and made me feel it might be possible for me too. And Nicholas Wilton, whose CVP online course gave me 4 years of art school in 12 weeks and an education that is still giving 3 years later.
Look up each of these people and sign up for whatever they are offering. And get yourself signed up for Nick’s free 10-day workshop which will give you an amazing amount of knowledge for free. Sign up HERE.
If you’re too late, you can add yourself to the waiting list for next year. Do not miss this chance!
If you are frustrated with your work, I want you to take my story as an inspiration. I don’t know what your art future looks like – but your soul does. Let it find its way!
One thing I know for sure: you have magic inside you :)