"I was trying to create something consistent but it just wasn’t me. I like diverse and different things."These  are the words of an artist who recently had a breakthrough in her work. The breakthrough came when she let go of expectations and just did what felt right for her.It made me think about the pigeonholes we constantly put ourselves in. We tell ourselves that we should be something (always something that we are not). And then we try to force ourselves into that mould when actually, we don’t fit it.If you are searching for your artistic voice, you may feel it’s necessary to cram yourself into the pigeonhole of your choosing (“I will be an abstract landscape painter” or “I will be a collage artist”) when actually you need to be both and many more things besides. This is how we get in our own way. This is how we prevent ourselves making our best work. Maybe this is how we give ourselves an excuse ... “I would be a great artist,” we can say to ourselves, “if only I could find my style.”I wonder what would have happened if Picasso had tried to find a style and stick with it… perhaps he would have just made thousands of blue paintings! And yet even though Picasso did not consciously aim for a style, he had one anyway. We all do - we can’t help it. And it emerges naturally over time if we just get out of the way.What does it mean to get out of the way? It means to let yourself create whatever you truly enjoy creating in whatever way gives you the most joy. It means forgetting about that artist you really envy, the one whose work you think is just fabulous, and focusing on yourself. What do you enjoy doing? What parts of your paintings do you like? Why?As you identify your own preferences, you are inadvertently developing your style.If that means that you enjoy all kinds of different things, go for them all! You cannot hide from your style – it will find you! And it will never stay still. It will evolve continually if you are truly exploring and having fun with your work. So your style today may not be your style tomorrow. Accept that and suddenly it all becomes a bit less fraught.In the words of Walt Whitman:

Do I contradict myself?Very well then I contradict myself;(I am large, I contain multitudes.)Walt Whitman – from Song of Myself

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