TPL reader Lauren is struggling with an issue that many artists experience at some point or another. She writes:

I struggle to identify what my work is about. I never do representational work and still feel as if my work jumps all over the place. I can easily say what inspires me and what elements in the physical world I'm drawn to (I too have an obsession with rock walls...) I can't really think of those things when painting. If I do, the work becomes stilted and forced. My guess is that you and others will say, "Don't worry about it, just paint and you'll figure it out." But I'd love to hear how others arrived at what their work was about. It does make sense to me to have SOME sense of direction. As a teacher said to me, it's not enough to say you want to build a house...you have to know what KIND of house you want to build. A Cottage, a condo, a mansion, etc. At this point all I can say is acrylic, want to go bigger, relatively neutral palette, love line. But beyond that I just don't know.

For some people, the subject of their work is just obvious from the moment the pick up a paintbrush. They know they were born to paint portraits, or horses and that’s what they do. Others know their work has to have a political meaning, or a conceptual point and they go down that route,But for many of us, that’s just not the case. We know we want to make art, but we’re less clear on why we’re doing it.This is where the teacher’s analogy falls down. I do think you need to know what kind of house you want to build before you start (!) but I don’t think that applies to making art.Our Facebook group members had some interesting feedback for Lauren:Sally Hirst said:

Maybe your work is about the work? I try to hang mine on a 'hook'… landscape etc … but for me it's as much to do with process, texture and layers as anything else.

Yes me too!Imelda Cook said:

Most of the time I don't have a concrete idea of what my work is about until I get to the end of two or three themed works. It is only when I challenge myself to write of it that the deeper meaning of my work comes out. And the writing has to be honest, even if it feels like taking a risk and exposing your inner most thoughts and desires.

Victoria Kempf offered this:

I talk out loud to my paintings, asking them what they want or what they mean. For me it's a great way to let the intuition have a voice of her own. Sometimes this "conversation " gets quite involved and really helps me discover direction and solutions. And, no, I'm not crazy.

We’ll be the judge of that Victoria ;-)I agree with all of these. I’ve come to believe that there is always a reason you are driven to make art – and it will make itself known to you in time. You just need to get out of the way.In my own case, I’ve always drawn and painted the Yorkshire landscape. When we moved to America, I lost interest in making art. Then when we moved home, it immediately returned and back came the landscapes. I started out making representational pen and ink drawings, then watercolour paintings, then mixed media pieces with watercolour and collage. I finally moved into acrylics in 2017. All this time, I thought I was trying to capture the local landscape.It wasn’t until I took the online CVP program where we were encouraged to dig deeper, that I began to understand what my work really wanted to be about. In fact, I’ve only really come to understand in the months after that course finished. My work isn’t about the landscape itself. It’s about the joy I feel when I am out in the wild, open spaces up on the moors. I feel that way because of the space. The space feels like freedom. So I actually love the landscape because of those feelings of joy and space and freedom. It turns out that my art isn’t about hills and fields and stone walls and sheep – it is about joy and love and space and freedom.(And as I write this post, the word ‘freedom’ seems to ring more loudly for me than the other words, which is something I need to dig more deeply into).So I think the answer to the question: “How do you find out what your work is about?” is this: you keep inquiring.Which means you keep painting.But it also means you keep noticing. When you see something that you love, ask yourself why. Go deeper than your initial reaction. You love stone walls? Why? What is it about stone walls? You love the way another artist uses colour? What specifically is it that you like? Why? Keep digging. Perhaps like Victoria, you talk to the paintings. Or perhaps like Imelda, you do some deep writing. Or maybe you meditate or go for long walks. The main thing is to keep inquiring and keep painting.You don’t have to do anything with what you find – just file it all away and keep working. I truly believe that your intuition knows what your work is about and it will lead you there if you just keep painting and asking the questions.If you’re struggling with a questions about your art, just shoot me an email. If I think we can help, I’ll ask the amazingly talented artists in our Facebook group and then pull the best responses into a post like this one. And if you don’t already receive my Sunday newsletter, what are you waiting for? Sign up now! Every week, I drop some amazing new insights on you that will fire you up and get you excited about your art. What’s not to love?