Painting has always been a refuge for me. When I'm in my little painter's bubble – concentrating on nothing but the image that is coming through me – I am at peace. There is an untold joy that comes with having this outlet for intangible emotions and thoughts, or energies I can feel around me. 🎨
Any time I'm lucky enough to receive a commission from someone, it is an absolute honour to bring through an image that will speak to them, too, or help them to unravel a challenge they're passing through. Painting has always been a source of solace and strength for me ... but since last winter, I have put it on the back burner somewhat, as other duties pulled my attention away.
One of the common challenges creative people face is that for many of us, the artistic work we do is not the work that pays the bills. Often, we must prioritise other work that pulls in money and puts food on the table, which is completely understandable. 🙏 Yet it is important that we find time to honour our creative side, too.
Yesterday evening, I was pottering about the house, tidying up, making my wardrobe look less like a disaster site ... and I saw my portfolio silently sitting behind a pile of coats, as it had been doing for months. I opened it up again, for the first time this year, and spent some time with my past paintings, allowing them to reignite my creative flame.
Spending time with my old paintings has reawakened something within me. I've found myself coming out of my phase of creative drought, and contemplating all kinds of new images I could bring through ... fresh energies, thoughts and ideas that might want to be expressed in pictorial form.
It's been a while since I picked up the paintbrush, but I know I will do it again soon. The creative impulse can never be lost – even if ends up buried, at times, beneath other responsibilities and obligations. It will always return. 💗
