Getting Started Again
It’s really interesting how life turns out to be quite unexpected. During my schooling career I was told by my art teacher that sometimes I showed moments of brilliance but most of the time my work was pretty ordinary, which at the time I took as code for ‘find another thing to do because art ain’t your thing!’
Yet my mother was a very good seamstress and crafter. She ran a craft business from our home for most of my childhood and I believe generations back, there was a very talented artist on my mothers side. So, art in some shape or form has always been an influence in my life. I guess it was no surprise that once I had done all my travelling/backpacking and returned home to Zimbabwe, I would decide to open a business that was focused on art/craft.
It seemed natural that this would follow me when we migrated to Australia but instead of creating hand painted fabrics like I had in Zimbabwe, I moved all my work onto canvas and was fortunate to have work featured in galleries in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra – and yes this was before the growth of the internet. Then artist’s relied on galleries to profile and sell their work 😊
So why did I pause my art? To be honest it was mainly because I had a small family and they just loved getting their hands stuck into my work. I would find that I got so absorbed painting, that I would stop watching them, only to find that they had gotten up to mischief somewhere else in my studio!
When my middle child drew all over a painting, I had ready to go to a gallery (thank goodness it hadn’t been bought by a client!) I think it was then that I decided it was time to pause for a while.
I just hated being a grumpy Mum trying to keep them away from my work. The last thing I wanted to do was turn art into a negative experience for them!
I moved onto other things and fell into the world of coaching, particularly business coaching because I had so much business experience, which has been fun but for sometime now, it just felt like something was missing. I missed my creativity.
So, towards the end of 2019 I decided to go back into the world of art again.
I can’t describe how good it feels to be creative again. For a long time now, my brain has just felt stuck. I have always been quite an intuitive person, used to flashes of inspiration and insights that I have relied on to direct my life but so much of this had stopped for me.
Starting my art again, having the opportunity to be creative again has really freed my mind and I regularly get these flashes again. I feel like I am returning back to my centre, to who I really am – a creative being having fun creating life.
This whole experience has really helped to highlight why it is so important for us all to have a creative outlet. There are so many benefits!
Not only is it great for your mental health and wellbeing, it also helps to move you out of your left brain thinking which can often get you stuck, and usually in a negative way. Having a creative outlet allows you to press pause, fire up your right brain, which is the creative, problem solving side of your brain. It is also the part that is connected to your intuition.
Having seen and experienced these benefits for myself, I have decided to start offering 1 on 1 online classes for people who are interested in learning more about art and starting their own creative practices to help them reconnect to their own creativity which will help them innovate and find solutions they might be seeking in their own life.
The benefits for people who own a business to do this are huge, particularly in these challenging times where we need to innovate on a regular basis to stay ahead!
I also thought that over the coming weeks, months I would share my insights about starting up an art practice from home so, if this is something you might be interested in knowing about, I can help you to get started and shortcut unnecessary expense.
I will also be sharing art tips, particularly with fluid painting to help you enhance your art practice. So, if you would like to learn more, please sign up to my newsletter. It’s going to be great sharing content and getting to know you at the same time 😊
Time to paint up a storm! All the very best
Isha
P.S. Thought I would include a picture of my new art space!