For 20 years I mostly painted from photos, virtually copying the photo as I saw it and adding a few relatively minor variations in shapes, colours and brushwork. I relied mainly on the natural characteristics of the watercolour paint itself to create a loose, arty look.
Although I’ve been happy overall with my art practice to date, I’m very aware that it was much more satisfying and enjoyable for me on those occasions when I engaged a higher level of creativity during the painting process. So the question is… “how do you ‘turn up’ your level of creativity while painting and make it your normal setting?” Here’s a little project for you.
First, we need to recognise that everyone is already creative; we just need to learn how to activate it when we’re doing our art. We all have inside us our own ‘creative databank’ built up over our lifetime from experiences, things we’ve seen, places we’ve been, challenges we dealt with, beauty we enjoyed, etc., etc. Without even knowing it we constantly draw on our creative databank day-in, day-out to help us through life.
To grow as artists, it helps to build our creative databank as richly as possible, by exploring art online, in galleries, in books and magazines, and also by paying attention to the patterns, forms and rhythms we encounter in nature. The more expansive your internal databank becomes, the more ideas will surface when you’re making your own work.
Secondly, we must allow ourselves the freedom to play and make a mess, the freedom to experiment and make mistakes, to be free from conformity and constraints, and free from the fear that others won’t like our work! Giving yourself this freedom can be a tough choice for some as it goes against what our parents and school teachers drummed into us. So be brave!
NOW GO FOR IT! Adhere closely to the following four principles and work this way every day for a month, and watch what happens!
- Paint for Myself – for my enjoyment only, I’m the only person who needs to like this! I’m not painting this for anyone else. It doesn’t matter what others like or dislike!
- Paint from Within – A reference photo can be used to provide a simple basis for the composition, but it’s crucial to cut back severely on the amount of info that you take from the photo. Now, throw open your creative databank and note every idea that comes up from imagination, intuition and memory. Don’t dismiss a single idea!
- Paint ‘Experiments’ – Stop thinking that you’re painting a ‘finished’ painting! Try new things, take big risks, ‘push it’ to the edge of chaos and see how it feels. Keep asking the question “What if I did this? and what if I did that?”
- Paint Quantity – aim for one new composition per day, but with much less pre-planning and forethought. Don’t get stuck on one painting trying to get it just right; put it aside for another day and start a new one. Always find beauty in the imperfections, for they will make your artwork uniquely yours!
Ron Clark
Kuranda, 15/05/26
