By Creative Contributor: Cindy Davis
This week I have been on a solo Vacay in South Florida. My intentions were quite pure ~ quality one-on-one with my art. But like a young child waiting for recess, once the bell rang I had a difficult time settling down into making “real” artwork.
It is important to play
All week I have had that nagging little feeling that I was somehow wasting my vacation. As a mom and wife, I don't get the chance to abandon my responsibilities and fly solo very often. I didn't want to squander it.
But playtime is important for your inner artist. Julia Cameron, author of several books on unleashing and unblocking your creative self, suggests a weekly artist date in her book, The Artist's Way. She advises to make certain to nurture this little seedling inside your creative self. Don't ignore it. Feed this part of you once a week with an artist's date.
Playtime is pretend time. Setting aside the pressure to create so called real artwork, playtime can result in all sorts experiments. Get out of the studio. Take time to play.
My results: Nothing to show for it?
Although I have been painting for years and have read numerous books on color theory, this week I revisited some old ideas. Working with Betty Edwards textbook, Color: a course in mastering the art of mixing colors; I made color wheels.
I sketched. I wandered around looking at tree trunks holding up my goofy, handmade grayscale value wheel. I got some strange looks. Who cares? I was feeding...
I believe all of this has seeped into my head in a subtle way and will dribble out into my artwork over the next few months in unanticipated ways.
As I head back home with a car full of art supplies instead of finished paintings, I really don't care. I have a head and heart full of something more important … fresh ideas.
Grab some time for yourself:
You don't need an entire week's vacation to recharge your creativity. Grab what you can.
If you only have an hour every other Thursday – TAKE IT ! Scheduling regularly scheduled play-date with yourself is important. Feed that little creative monster. Be immature. Be childish. Be free.
Three Ideas for Artist Dates:
ONE: Grab your camera. Bring a beeping, alarm watch or some other form of noisy time measuring device. Set the alarm to go off every 3 minutes. Walk, drive, or otherwise move about your environment. When the alarm beeps, stop and take ONE photograph. See what you get at the end of the day.
TWO: Visit an art museum this time takes notes on the WORDS beside each painting. Collect the words you like. Sit in the cafe and sketch the words you just saw in the galleries, perhaps drawing inspiration from the artwork if you feel so inclined.
THREE: Visit a place that is very familiar to you with the sole intention of finding a new way to look at the it. Take a place you visit often your church, a store, a park, a school and stay until you find a something you have never noticed before. Photograph or sketch it, then change it or doodle on it until it becomes something entirely different.
Cindy Davis ~ Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Davis has lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee and most recently Jacksonville, Florida before relocating to Albany, Georgia in 2005. Painting professionally for over five years, Ms. Davis has exhibited her work throughout the Southeastern United States.
Her paintings has been exhibited in solo and group shows at Albany Council for the Arts, Fort Valley State University, Phoebe Memorial Hospital, Turner Center for the Arts, the Georgia National Fair, and other locations throughout Georgia and Florida.
She is a member of the International Society of Acrylic Painters and the Womens Caucus for Art of Georgia. A self-taught artist, she holds a BS degree in Economics from the University of Tennessee.
Find Cindy online at http://www.cindydavisart.com/
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This article is courtesy of the MMCA Marketplace Blog, a
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