MAKE IT EASY
Starting and sticking to a creative practice can be a challenge at the best of times and for many people this is not the best of times - far from it!
There are many things I am enjoying about this enforced elongated period of time at home… cooking, reading and planting with my youngest, slow coffee in the sunshine on weekdays, taking time to journal in my pyjamas, seeing my eldest relax now that GCSEs have been cancelled. I realise that all I need is right here and I have surprised myself by not feeling the restlessness that has risen in the past on a regular basis. But there have been challenges - being unable to help my 11 year old with his maths homework because I don’t understand the question, persuading my teen that he mustn’t meet his friends in the early days, trying to focus on my art when my mind is distracted - not huge challenges in the scheme of things, admittedly. At times like these, we adapt; it’s necessary. We are all juggling different balls than we’re used to - not more balls necessarily, just different ones and some of them are slippery or spiky. Some of these we can drop - we soon figure out what is vital and what we can let slide, at least for a little while. For some that means not putting make-up or even clothes on and staying in pyjamas, for me it means letting go of the desire to work on bigger paintings, though just for the time being and finding new ways of working that still feel fun and worthwhile and that fit into this new normal, even though it’s ever-changing.
I managed a few days in the kitchen and garden, working over older paintings on wood panels, but this didn’t feel sustainable. Instead, I chopped back shrubs and removed ivy, got a tree chopped back, dismantling instead of creating. This was a clearing of space - a making way for my new art studio at the bottom of the garden. It was not working on my paintings, but it was working towards a new place to create them. That felt good and satisfying.
Indoors, the creative urge was still there, but that the periods of uninterrupted time to create would be minimal unless I started burning the midnight oil which just didn’t feel right - my teen turned nocturnal early in lockdown, so even then it would not be the quiet alone time that tends to feed my painting. So I kept it simple. I taped three pieces of watercolour paper to my art table. With hindsight, I would have been better off taping them to a board, which would have freed me up to work outside easily when I wanted to, but hey, maybe next time!
Having three pieces taped together allowed me to work on a series - that was the intention. I mixed up a colour that felt right and painted it in small areas of each of the pages. Another colour was mixed and added, but it was a little later in the day that I added the third - this way of working meant that I could make my art in small stages, giving me the time to be Mum and the space to step back from my art before rushing to the next colour. This proved useful and made creating feel manageable. A few days later, I had three finished pieces and the next three sheets of paper will go down in their place as soon as I remove them to begin another series, but for now they are waiting as I rolled a sheet of lining paper over them, brought some flowers in from the garden and did a little sketchbook drawing... I have introduced another practice.
I love drawing, always have, but I don’t always do as much as I would like to. On a recent call with my Creative Community, we made our own sketchbooks from scraps of paper we had collected. Mine was made of used envelopes, online orders and receipts from during lockdown. It has very few blank pages so I don’t feel at all precious about using it… I just draw over the text and enjoy the layers and varied textures.
Last night, I decided that in order to encourage my drawing I would clear the kitchen table of distractions each night before bed and place my sketchbook and pen/pencil right there to pick up with my morning coffee and start drawing. Today was day #1. I made three drawings and then later in the day started painting. One of the benefits of doing something creative first thing is that we get it done, but also it reminds us how much we enjoy that thing when we do it, so it leads us on in the direction of doing what is important to us.
The kitchen table is where I spend most time, so it’s the obvious place to put my sketchbook and pencil. Why was it always invisible on my painting table with the paints and papers and associated clutter?
Where are you sitting most often at the moment? Grab your sketchbook or your paper and pen or pencil and put them right there, make them easily accessible. Make it easy for yourself to start drawing or writing or to do whatever your preferred form of expression is and make it a priority. Keep it simple and expand from there. You will thank yourself for it.
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