Have you ever noticed that when you are making your art and it is all working out that it is almost as if you are not entirely there? You are driving the bus but it seems like you do not have to try very hard. Almost like it is driving itself. Art making sometimes can feel that easy.
I love it when that happens but it rarely stays that way for long. If I overthink and concentrate too much I lose that ability to just let the art unfold naturally. Instead it feels hard and somewhat forced.
I realize I tend to tighten up when I am over focusing on a new technique or, perhaps, trying something I haven’t before. It seems like the making of the art just goes slower. It becomes more effortful.
It takes a long time to become young -- Pablo Picasso Share on XHowever once I have learned that new something, once I have done it a few times it starts to become second nature again. I think it just takes time to integrate new information. And then I start to get those days that art making feels super easy again. It is like I am not even trying.
It reminds me of how I did things as a child. I remember just naturally getting involved in something, following my curiosity wherever it wanted to lead me. There was no agenda. No particular reason to do anything except for the simple joy of doing it. Everything was approached that way.
This is actually how I wandered into art in the first place. It was simply enjoyable.
I found this quote the other day by Pablo Picasso “It takes a long time to become young”
Which got me to thinking.
Maybe that is why it feels so refreshing to occasionally get totally in sync with our creativity. When our art just flows. It feels good, especially now, as busy adults with a world of concerns and long to do lists following us around. Maybe when we fall into that easy place where art making is simply effortless it is a reminder of what is still possible. The way it is supposed to be. Or rather the way it all started out being in the first place when curiosity and joy were simply enough.
19 Comments
Hi! I’m
Nicholas Wilton
the founder of Art2Life.
With over 20 years experience as a working artist and educator, I’ve developed a systematic approach that brings authenticity, spontaneity and joy back into the creative process.
Join me and artists from all over the world in our Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group or learn more here about Art2Life.
Really enjoying your class so far.
Nicholas I enjoyed the first session of your workshop yesterday and look forward to many more to come! Good learning for this novice artist. I love standing at the canvas. I love playing with my oil paints. I love looking at others art and learning. But I get stuck, overwhelmed and judgmental with my own work. The quote you just shared is perfect. Your sentiment in the last paragraph, perfect. My art teacher says this every time – just be free, just let loose, be like a child and just do it. Easy words. I will try to let go and listen to all these words. It certainly does take a long time to become young!!! Thanks for sharing your wisdom and giving us your time. Your work is amazing.
Beautiful painting, I love the colour scheme and composition. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and knowledge, it is always good to be reminded.
With gratitude
I used to live in Bali by the beach and a neighbour’s young granddaughters used to watch me paint on canvases on tarpaulin on the grass in front of the cottage. I paint semi abstract in mixed media and often spray water over the materials and canvas just to see what happens. The girls joined me one day, they were 7 and 9 and had both been told at school that they had no talent for art! Once they realized they were free to play with the paints and did not have to worry about an outcome they just allowed the process, the natural flow with no expectations. Their work was wonderful and their confidence rocketed. I heard from their grandmother a few months later that one of the girls had won an art prize back in Australia!
This resonates so much with me ….. I’m finding that working /playing with art materials with adults with acquired brain injury has given me ‘permission ‘ to just play.I’m so grateful to have ‘remembered’ that childlike feeling of seeing things for the first time ….In looking for interesting and innovative ways to inspire others who have profound challenges has made my experience of making my own artwork so much more fun .
Your first video is amazing, thank you for sharing.
I love this piece of art and the sentiments you speak of—those rare zen moments of being so immersed in the process, its all there is.
Also want to say, I’ve been following your posts for some time and am so grateful for them. They have more than once gotten me back into the studio
This post reminds me of how magical it was to have my two daughters in my ceramic studio when they were little. I gave them free run of the place and they would create the most amazing games. It was a constant reminder, and perhaps ‘permission’ might even be a better word, to work with freedom, to explore and to use my imagination. Now they are grown up and I have to remind myself from time to time to just let go and see what happens.
I call that feeling “being in the zone”. It is like a meditative feeling where the sounds of the room disappear, the walls of the room vanish and I’m just with the work. I love that feeling. Wonderful painting that you presented us with today. It encompasses all of the aspects that you were talking about on the first video. It was fun to visually wander through . . . thank you.
I enjoy being in the zone, but I also realized while working on a painting recently, if I recognize that I am “in the zone” it quickly dissipates and things become difficult again.
“when curiosity and joy were simply enough.” I love this and want to get back to this. My canvas is small; I make enameled jewelry but I am taking your principles to heart. I am looking forward to tomorrow’s lesson. Thank you.
Love this…It reminds me that there is a difference between joy and happiness. We are happy when someone remembers our birthday for example. But to experience joy, we first have to experience some pain/friction/suffering. No doubt a mother going through childbirth feels anguish and physical discomfort,.. and once that child is born, when she can finally hold her precious baby, she will often feel great joy – a mixture of wonder and delight
that is joy!
Also, I love the painting above…
Journaled on this and on to some simple Joy
This is timely. Just yesterday I posted a photo from a sketchbook with this quote which goes perfectly with what you’ve written “May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke
I have young children and I love watching them pretend play. If I could bring that flow of creativity into my art making every time I create – wow!
So true. As a child, up to about 15 yrs old, I could ‘make art’ out of anything. Didn’t have much money but it didn’t matter. I was forced to be creative and I was. I did a journal as a kid and I’m amazed at what I came up with. I’d get lost drawing a picture and 6 hrs later, I’d realize how time flew by. Now, I tend to work ‘ in my head ‘. Looking for all the trainings first- best supplies, compare my work, etc. Trying to get back to where it flows. I know I need to expand and learn different media, but I do not want to be stuck.
Having been artistically dry for some time, I find your thoughts and lessons very inspiring. I would love to be able to create freely without overthinking. I have a body of work in the back of my mind and, with your tips I hope to start doing my art again very soon.
I like to say you are in the zone. there is a magic place there and VERY hard to get to.
I’m really enjoying your bog so far – thank you !
So true! Have to go with the moment, and not pre-judge the outcome…one has to allow the making of “ugly” art to progress to happy art! Thank-you!!