Getting Into a Creative Flow

I have been thinking a lot about the source of creativity and the rush of inspiration. The COVID-19 pandemic has kept many of us inside our homes for very long periods of time, away from others, and kept us close to home. Many artists thought that they would be productive and churn out loads of new art pieces during the time of "stopping the spread". For some artists, that is exactly what has happened during these past few months. Others have been exploring new techniques and mediums with wonderous, nonexpectant enthusiasm. However, many artists are blocked and still looking for the lightning bolt of inspiration to jump-start their creative juices.

Portrait artist, Cesar Santos, has left his home studio behind and has been traveling around the country in a van to explore different art genres such as landscapes. I highly recommend you checking out his vlogs on YouTube. I think artists can get stuck and his approach of taking to the open road for inspiration is an excellent approach.

To feel connected to a broader art community, I recently participated in the first virtual Plein Air Live Conference. It was well done and a wide variety of well known and highly respected artists presented over the four-day event. The next virtual artists' conference will be in October. Check out Realism Live if you are interested in learning more about this event.

For me, I have been taking some weekend trips to nearby places and taking lots of reference photos for future painting ideas. I have been taking classes on figure drawing through Zoom live sessions hosted by a variety of ateliers.

Below are photos taken by me of a recent sunrise from Ashburnham, Massachusetts. Personally, being out in nature is good for my creative spirit and I returned from my lake trip, energized, relaxed and inspired.

So try new mediums, explore new genres, learn about other artists, find a group of people you can connect with to share your art journey with, and just have fun.