A few weeks ago my husband and I visited the tulip fields. I was so inspired by the colours, textures and lines of blooms, that I came home and immediately created a huge stack of printed papers. (I wrote a blog post about this a few weeks back; go and see the Petite Paper Paintings […]
A few weeks back, my hubby and I took a drive out to the valley to see the annual tulip fields. Although we’ve lived in Vancouver for nearly 30 years, this was the first time we made the trek and we weren’t disappointed. Acres of every size, shape and colour of tulip you could imagine, […]
The open mode is a mood in which curiosity for its own sake can operate, because we’re not under pressure to get a specific thing done properly. We can play. When you’re curious you find lots of interesting things to do. Creativity is like fitness. The longer you’re away from it, the more difficult it […]
First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. I’ve been a fitness coach for 14 years and a painter for 4. Surprisingly, the two have a lot in common. Both require motivation, inspiration, dedication, getting comfortable with doing uncomfortable things and a willingness to explore one’s personal […]
Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life forever. Art-making is typically a solitary endeavour. In order to create and refine our work, artists need blocks of time without interruption or distraction. An afternoon to ponder a work in progress, […]
Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem. Rollo May The enemy of art is the absence of limitations. Orson Welles When I first started painting, I thought that the […]