4 essential pillars to be an artist

Before I became a full-time artist I spent years grappling with my creative process, to build a joyful, purposeful and enduring painting practice. This is what I discovered in my 10 years of trial and error to find a creative process that would result in authentic art making.

Intuition

To make your art unique and authentic to you, firstly you need to hone into your intuition. Many of us lose this connection during school, where we are taught to put knowledge before imagination and play. We go through a system that marks achievement on retaining information, following instructions and prioritises maths, science and logical thinking. No wonder most adults have no idea on their life purpose, as they stopped listening to themselves a long time ago.

The good news is this voice never goes away. What our soul wants is you to be happy, inject fun and enjoyment to the everyday. And that soul is what makes our art come alive and connect with other people, you feel it in the art.

Some simple exercises to tune back into your intuition is keeping a thought journal, just jot down 2 A4 pages of what's on your mind everyday. You'll be surprised how quickly you uncover some insights to what kind of art you really want to make.

Taking a walk in nature or gardening grounds us back to nature. We forget we are part of nature, and embracing this makes us feel more alive and joyful.

I also recommend keeping an image journal, collecting photos of anything you find interesting. This is great to look back on as a book of inspirational images that are unique to your tastes.

Fundamental Skills

Making art is not about talent - sorry to bust this myth ;) It's about lots of practice with materials, and doing this on a consistent basis. In order to find out what medium and technique suits you best requires lots of experimentation. These experiments should be small and consistent to get going, otherwise you can become overwhelmed and stuck very quickly.

When thinking about fundamental skills, this is a very broad topic including colour, composition, value, texture. As a painter, learning these skills is challenging, as gaining control over paint requires patience and persistence.

Many of the core skills of creating can be learned through classes such as life drawing, where you learn about scale, tone, and value. The great thing about drawing classes is that you can then applying these knowledge and skills to different materials such as painting or photography.

Once you know the rules of how to create aesthetically pleasing art you then know how and when to break the rules. This enables you to be more expressive within your artwork, creating the effects you want in your art.

Inspiration

As an artist, inspiration is like a cup that needs filled on a consistent basis. Treat your art and life with curiosity. This doesn't have to be a visit to an art gallery, it could be a trip to the aquarium, rummaging in charity shops or going to the fun fair. Really embrace your intuition when planning how to get inspired, and leave judgement for another day.

Taking inspiration from other artist's is essential and you should approach this with a healthy curiosity. It is not a copying exercise, as everyone will put their own spin on their artwork. Ask yourself why you like the artist, it might be their use of colour or the humour in their art. What is it you want to glean from this artist that you can take into your artwork?

Reflection

Learning how to reflect on the progress of your artwork is a skill that really expedites your learning and development. As you are relying on yourself for feedback, again you need to be really tuned into your intuition, and have an understanding of the fundamentals to successfully give yourself quality feedback. This feedback will give you the answers to what you want to try next, which could be a larger scale, a new material such as ceramics or a different colour palette.

The other way to use reflection is to think about your career aspiraions as an artist. There are so many options it really helps to start narrowing this down, as a guide for the direction of your art. This might be to have work in galleries, or working on public art, with charities, or simply to make enough money from art to sustain a hobby.

How to put these four pillars into action:

In Art Hub we create confident, brave artists who paint with ease, and have a consistent and enjoyable creative process that lights them up. We will get you excited about YOUR art again, and guide you through steadily building confidence at your pace.

As a former blocked artist I understand the challenges you face to be your most confident artist and how to transform art making into an enjoyable process.

You can join us now for a 30-day FREE trail (then just £20 per month):

https://arthubcommunity.com/invitation?code=D46447

Intuition: We teach you how to reconnect with your artistic desires. To create your best art you need to honour your intuition and use it as a compass.

Fundamentals: Learn the fundamental skills of art making, colour, composition, value and much more

Inspiration: Every month we inspire you by looking at artists, hosting workshops and setting fun activities to get you inspired

Reflection: Being able to reflect on your art is key to moving forward. We support you in your personal goals and teach you how to make your art better

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