“Creativity takes courage.” – Henri Matisse
There are a few things I love more than getting creative with some paint or with graphite!
How about you? Do you love to create?
What do you love to do to fulfill the creativity drive that seems to live within many of us, in one form or another.
I loved art so much when I was at school that I was hoping to attend Art College however it wasn’t to be my journey and in fact I didn’t return to painting (unless you count home decorating or my children’s school projects) until I was much older.
One of the reasons that many of us don’t (and I for one was one of the many), get creative in the way we really want to be is because of time, or rather because of a perceived lack of time, or lack of ability and or the belief that it isn’t time well spent.
I waited until space opened up in my elder years before I returned to my paint brushes and in the meantime fed my creativity with what I believed to be a more productive use of my time by sewing clothes for my children, planting gardens, crocheting rugs, photography and cooking. The closest I got to my most favourite form of creativity; painting and sketching, was doodling in the margins of my uni study notes!
When I look back now over the years, I can clearly see that I could have been painting or sketching, I could have made the time, and I would have felt so much better for it, if I only I had turned off the voice in my head that said there wasn’t time for such trivial pursuit.
Such was the conditioning of my early years. Maybe yours too?
Where would we be without art? It is difficult to imagine a world without Monet, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Gainsborough, Van Gogh and Turner, to name but a very few.
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide whether it is good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol
So why should we get more creative?
Besides the myriad benefits of releasing your inner juices such as improving your mood, reducing stress and anxiety, raising self-awareness, slowing down the mind and body, mindfulness, slowing cognitive decline, increasing thinking and processing, and helping to process trauma, it is fun!
In more recent years Art Therapy has become very popular in hospitals and Aged Care facilities and studies have proven how it can help patients to heal. Why Art Therapy works is a great link to check out if you would like to know more.
If you feel that you just don’t have a creative bone in your body, or that you can’t draw to save your life, there are many other forms of creativity to consider. Here are just a few:
Woodworking
Gardening
Sewing
Writing
Photography
Learn a new language
Cooking
Colouring in
Daydreaming
Doodling
Do you have a favourite way to unleash your creative flow?
Nature Notes
I am happy to say that I am back into the swing of daily nature notes in my diary. Sharing a few on here is definitely helping!
Sunday, 3rd September - highlights
Warmer today, 57 F - 76 F and rain is due. Sunrose 0600 and set 1735. The Moon waning in Aries and rose 0904. Last nights the Owls and Bats were in competition with each other, it was so noisy. Crazy cockerel woke us early and then a cacophony of Parrots, Galahs, Minors, Wag Tails, Whip and Bell birds kept us entertained all day. Too warm for the wood stove tonight.
Wednesday 6th September - highlights
High tide 0203 & 1459. Temps from 16 to 27 C and oh so humid. Again we didn’t need the wood stove. Storm last night but mininmal rain. Sunrose 0556 and set 1736. Despite so little rain, the garden looks refreshed and somewhat perkier. Couldn’t see the moon at all. Crazy cockerel woke us followed by Cockatoos, Crows, Parrots and Galahs. Whip and Bell birds very quiet today. Kookaburras quieter too.
Thank you for reading to the end!
Until next time,
Bright blessings
Tracey x
I love your nature notes!
Lovely charcoal picture ... thank goodness for your creativity. My creative love will always be the words and painting pictures with them!
Your nature notes are such a good prompt to all of us to observe and notice more.