“You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” -- Maya Angelou

Things took a turn for me this week. In a good way.

There are things I have been wanting to express in my work for a long time ... and this week, they finally appeared.

It's hard to put into words how that felt. 

It was pure alignment ... me and my materials and my space all moving gently and easily together, as if we were dancing.

The funny thing is there was very little paint involved. I LOVE paint. I felt sure my work would always be about paint. And yet here I am using very little paint and feeling pure joy and pure connection.

This week I want to share how it happened, because I think it might help you with your own work.

Here are the things I did:

1) I stopped trying to make paintings
2) No, really I stopped trying to make anything good
3) I FULLY, deep down, in my core, accepted that I wouldn't be making anything good
4) Then I reminded myself ONE MORE TIME!
4) Finally, knowing that nothing good was going to happen, I started to play. 

Over a period of a few weeks, I worked in paint at first on large sheets of paper and then on a big piece of canvas that I had spare. Then I felt a nudge to try charcoal. so I worked with that for a while.

I recorded every step of the process for my Art Tribe. If you're a member, it's all coming in May - a step-by-step guide to my exploration process. If not, here are some pictures of what it looks like.

As I was working through these experiments, I began to notice wonderful things. There was the new effect I discovered with wet charcoal, an unusual combination of colours, the fact that I was enjoying creating space in the different works. 

Eventually these ideas coalesced into a short list of a few things I knew I wanted to explore further. I wanted to work with charcoal and soft pastels - two mediums I generally avoid! I wanted to add in other drawing media. I wanted to use Indian ink.  And I wanted to create pieces that felt both spacious and energetic. 

But remember my rules for myself? No trying to be good!

So I initially used old paper - stuff that had got stained or crumpled in some way - and I made a series of studies just testing out my ideas. 

What a joy it was!

For a whole afternoon, it was as though I was engaged in a slow, seductive dance with the materials. I lost myself in draw lines and runny ink and smudgy soft pastel.

Only after all this experimentation, did I allow myself to break out the good paper. And even then, I bought lots of it so that I didn't feel precious about one or two sheets.

I'm now happily engaged in creating a series of these ... abstract drawings? mixed media paintings? I really don't know what to call them. I do know that they make my heart sing, 

If you work realistically, you may feel that this way of working doesn't apply to you but I want to urge you to reconsider. We all get stuck in ruts. We often like to stay within our comfort zones. But no matter what type of art you make, there is always room for exploring and experimenting.

It will always, always make your work better.