I had not picked up a paint-brush in ages. I decided a few months back to devote my time to writing and the site. But, to be perfectly honest with you, I am missing the art side of things like crazy.
I suppose you can’t just switch something off in you that is innate and is trying to bash down the walls to come out again.
My Studio — the Graveyard
I was also feeling trapped and confined in my creative working area — my studio and office space are one room. It had become a dumping ground with boxes bursting at the seems full of, well, for want of a better word…crap. There were also boxes in there for donation that had been sitting there for at least 6 months.
My studio had become a morgue, a place for things to come and die.
When I made my decision to stop painting for a while, I still allowed myself personal time to paint and get creative for myself but not even this was happening. It’s a case of ‘no-shit-Sherlock’ if you had to take a look at my studio.
I had my painting desk facing the corner of the room like I was in the ‘dunce’ timeout zone. A really stupid place to put a table where you are going to hopefully create works of fine art.
Making the Artist Retreat Respectable
Last week I got a huge yellow and black bee up my bonnet and decided to make a concerted effort to beautify, clear up and simplify my space to best work for me.
I buzzed hither and thither on my mission of organization and beautification. I even made it into a little spiritual retreat with fairy lights dangling from my curtain rail to candles and incense burners dotted around.
After this was done, I actually got a bit of painting in! Can I hear a ‘whoop whoop‘?
Let the Creative Juices Flow…
I wanted today’s creativity/inspirational blog to be about why we need to create, what get’s us going? What do other artists and masterminds have to say. I stumbled upon this great blog called ’15 Famous Quotes on Creativity’ — well worth a read.
Here are my top 3 favourite quotes from this article.
And last but not least…my childhood guru, Dr Seuss:
For more creative inspiration, please read:
Cherie Roe Dirksen 
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I wish ALice IN WOnderland would come and help me declutter my sitting room for me!
We have to ‘know’ what we are about? Why we paint And what we are ‘going for ‘ WHen the reason has been established the water will start to flow again like a love-affair
Leonora Toomey
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Ha ha…I wish that for myself too, Leonora. Sometimes Alice doesn’t show herself for days and I’m left with scruffy old Cherie. 😉
That simple question — ‘why are you doing this?’ — is often the hardest to solve. I think when we realize we are, in fact, doing it for no-one but ourselves, we can start to get into that flow again. Our purpose in life is not to defiine ourselves through our careers but to find the key to our true self through what we do.
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Thank you, needed this.
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Pleasure 🙂
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The environment where we want to be creative has an important impact on the result – as you write in this post. If the working environment is boring, cramp and not attractive, how likely isn’t that we are gonna thrive there? Congratulations with making your studio into an artist’s retreat.
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So true. It’s just that sometimes we forget how important it is and let things slide (well, I know I do). I’m really enjoying my space now. It has even appeared to have freed up some energy blockages too as I am now busy with 2 large commissions. Something I probably a job I wouldn’t have got, on an energetic level, if I had not shifted the working space condition. 😉
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