“I mean that sounds silly. I did know Illustration existed as I spent my childhood years like many others absorbed in children’s books. What I didn’t take notice of, was that it was a style of creativity I could try.”
Recently I launched my first ever series of art prints. I am very excited. I also feel a sense of creative comfort I haven’t felt in a long time. Throughout high school and university I pinned myself as an oil painter. I loved its slowness, the rich earthy tones and the smell of oil paints. I didn’t use mediums (chemicals used to thin and work the paint) and I learnt early on to clean with oil and soap. So there was this lovely, nurturing, natural and grounded process that went with oil painting. Once I graduated as an art therapist, my oil painting petered out until I stopped altogether about 6 years ago. You could find me collaboratively creating with art therapy clients or briefly delving into some doodles and ink splatters in my word filled journal, but not sitting down to do a full big picture painting.
My oil paintings were driven by a desire to capture feelings in composition and symbolism and most of my works held multiple figures, swirling colours of symbolic items and animals representing transition. It wasn’t like I ever got to an end point or consciously figured out the essence of what I was seeking in my art-making but I found when my creative itch finally returned it wasn’t fixated with the same lens. The way I had been working no longer served me the same way.
Some previous oil on wood artworks 2013 and 2015
I am not intending to write this blog post with some big picture perspective (although I am inclined to formulating and trying to make sense of everything!). Instead I am hoping to share a little more about my personal creativity and my own creative adventures and also give voice to the fact that sometimes our creative processes and styles stay the same for a long period of time and then they don’t. During my painting hiatus I was working full time and building Sunflower and Ivy. I also was experiencing a lot of grief for people that I had lost, life changing medical experiences and a whole lot of other things. I hope to write a little more on my experience with grief and creativity and that the result for me, despite the messaging we receive that heartache fuels creativity was actually a creative freeze.
Most small business owners can attest to the creativity involved in a start-up and I was fortunate enough creativity was also a big part of my work as an art therapist. So although I wasn’t making larger “artist” works, I was around art materials all the time and was regularly called on to be resourceful. Incidentally and with the delight of hindsight this would probably be my biggest recommendation to anyone struggling with creative block, to be around and immersed in creative expression even if you’re not the one doing it. My own immersion, happened to largely be alongside children and teens as they created. Although my work was to assist my clients, there is no doubt that they have in turn had a significant impact on me.
Super cheesy grin and excited to be a small business owner
My favorite photo of the art therapy studio set up for some creative hearts
Many of my clients face significant challenges both inside and outside the art room so they approach self expression in a way that meets their needs. They adjust processes, repeat them, abandon them and persist with them in a way that helps them, comforts them and feels cathartic or good. Through my work I witness that whilst some art houses very significant messaging and expression, the making itself ia magical when made for the sake of making.
I am not sure the nuances of artmaking and art therapy can be reduced to words or that I have the articulation to give it credit. But I do know that working as an art therapist and supporting people to make art, wherever they are at, for whatever reasons are important to them has given me permission to do the same.
The other thing that happened during my period of non-painting was I was on Instagram a lot. Instagram is a bit of tightrope when it comes to stifling or inspiring creativity. Too much and you lose yourself in what others are doing, enough and you suddenly see the endless possibilities. It was through Instagram that I discovered illustration.
I mean that sounds silly. I did know Illustration existed as I spent my childhood years like many others absorbed in children’s books. What I didn’t take notice of, was that it was a style of creativity I could try. I graduated high school right on cusp of the technology tsunami (getting my first smart phone for my 21st birthday). I am endlessly grateful that I didn’t have to navigate all the complexities of social media and instantly accessible internet through my teens. I am also weirdly delighted I remember what dial-up internet is, what film canister looks like and that I remember Britanicca Encyclopaedia in its maroon and gold coloured hardcover editions. What I did miss out on, that could easily go unrecognised now, was additional visibility around what was possible in the creative industry and in art-making. Information moved much slower and I am sure opportunities were vastly different in good and less so directions. Freelancing for example has taken on a complete revolution with the internet and social media evolutions.
My first artwork in an Illustrative style
The point I am getting to is that I was focused on art history and oil painting and unaware of the ways you could paint and create illustratively until I stumbled upon the huge plethora of artist illustrators around the world in recent years that share their work on Instagram and Etsy. My brain, I suspect like many others is prone to asking why I took so long to discover this drawing, paint and paper combination. It has sarcastically reminded me of the times I did create cards with my husband but failed to scan them in at a printable standard, it’ll make me cringe by reminding me of other drawing adventures and my blindness to expanding it beyond the task at hand. My brain will worry that artists and illustrators are now significantly challenged by software replacements and AI. What my brain cannot do, is stifle my joy of finding a new way of creating, of a medium that provides me with delight and comfort and suits where I am now.
And I am excited to see where it goes.
Instagram also introduced me to gouache palettes, a much welcomed alternative to the tiny tubes I strongly dislike. Gouache is a lovely matte, reworkable paint that is watersoluable and used in micro amounts like watercolour. The platform may have many pitfalls but as far as a visual search engine goes it has lots of perks! If your interested you can find my artwork and prints account here and My art therapy account here.
So there I was, looking to reignite my own creative flame , inspired by new, transportable and relatively compact but colourful materials and with all the energy and lessons of my clients. I started painting what I wanted to with little desire for it to have meaning or to make impact. I painted to play and to find comfort and I ended up freefalling right back into my creativity.
It feels so good, I am so grateful.
If your interested in my gouache and watercolour originals, custom made painting and prints you can find them on my etsy store here.
