Thursday 10 December 2015
Monday 16 November 2015
Thursday 12 November 2015
Thursday 15 October 2015
Are you a human? Then it’s official, you’re creative.
“I’m not really a creative person”
“I didn’t get any creative genes”
“I’m not from a creative family”
Sound familiar?
Do you ever find yourself feeling like you don’t have the right to create art?
Don’t have the right to be creative?
We ALL have a creative heritage
In our day and age it’s common for us to be passive consumers, working long hours in non-creative jobs only to come home and passively watch TV. And to buy.
But, as Elizabeth Gilbert points out, you only have to go back a couple of generations in your own family to find ‘people who spent their lives making things’.
On my recent trip to the US, I picked up and devoured in one sitting, Gilbert’s new book all about creative living: ‘Big Magic’ (Amazon US
In it Gilbert makes the point that:
“The earliest evidence of recognisable human art is forty thousand years old. The earliest evidence of human agriculture, by contrast, is only ten thousand years old. Which means that somewhere in our collective evolutionary story, we decided it was way more important to make attractive, superfluous items than it was to learn how to regularly feed ourselves.”
I remember being struck by a similar thought when I saw this phenomenal piece of ice age art from the Brisitsh Museum:
13,000 year old creative living!
13,000 years ago (yes, that’s not a typo, it’s really thirteen thousand years ago) an ice age person carved these two beautiful swimming reindeer into a mammoth’s tusk.
Our understanding of creativity has got restricted
Thinking about our deep creative natures, reminded me of the fascinating book I read earlier this year, ‘Red Moon’ by Miranda Grey.
Ladies – this book is well worth a read if you ever wondered about the impact the moon has on your moods and creative energies! (Amazon US
Grey writes that our current culture has a restricted view of creativity which focuses on the end product rather than the experience itself.
And with this view, creativity is often given low priority in people’s lives.
But a better definition finds creativity in the process of giving form:
“It is the giving of form to the experience of your inner self in relation to the world around you, whether in a tangible form such as the creation of a child or a painting or in an intangible form such as an idea, a relationship or a dance’ – Miranda Grey
So to be creative is ‘not just to produce physically, but also to produce mental awareness’
It is, in short, creativity is part of what makes us human.
It’s in our nature. Every single one of us.
In the past creative expression was a feature of everyday life. As Grey points out:
“In museums, the modern person is often struck by the beauty of the decoration with which ancient cultures covered the most basic and menial artefacts. For those earlier cultures art was an expression of life and was reflected in their own lives at every level.”
So if we drop the modern fixation on the end product, we can accept that all forms of creative expression have equal validity, so an:
‘amateur painting with little technical skill is as valid as a professional painting of great skill, and the writing of a love poem is as valid as creating a solution to a problem or baking a cake.’
And if we deny this most human feature of our lives, it will find out outlet – in frustration or even destruction in an area of our lives. It’s there inside us whether we use it positively or not.
So if you needed permission to express your creativity, here it is.
Now, what act of creativity expression, big or small, are you going to engage in today (or this weekend)?
Let me know below!
P.S – I’ll leave you with an interesting interview with Gilbert about her Big Magic book here:
The post Are you a human? Then it’s official, you’re creative. appeared first on Watercolours with WOW.
from Watercolours with WOW » Anna Mason http://watercolourswithwow.com/are-you-a-human-then-its-official-youre-creative/
Saturday 3 October 2015
Thursday 1 October 2015
How to paint a realistic oak leaf in watercolour
Ever spent ages painting a flower, nervously putting off the moment when you have to tackle the leaves?
Leaves are crucial to botanical painting and can really let your painting down if you don’t get them right.
But they can be intimidating because there is often SO much detail to try to capture and it can be very difficult to paint a leaf so that you can see that detail – but also keep the leaf looking real and solid.
So in this tip video I thought I’d walk you through my process for painting them
Unfortunately there’s not a quick magic formula – leaves do take time – so the trick is to learn to relax into them and enjoy taking your time with them.
https://youtu.be/eK_M4rT27gM
Let me know if you’ve experienced leaf-angst in the comments below! You won’t be alone.
Even if you have struggled before, I hope this video inspires you to get out your paints and try leaves once more this weekend!
The post How to paint a realistic oak leaf in watercolour appeared first on Watercolours with WOW.
from Watercolours with WOW » Anna Mason http://watercolourswithwow.com/how-to-paint-a-realistic-oak-leaf-in-watercolour/
Wednesday 23 September 2015
How to paint a rose flower in watercolour
Roses can be daunting to paint! So many gorgeous petals, it’s tricky to know where to start!
In this little tip video I wanted to try to demystify that process for you and show you how I tackle a larger-than-life complicated rose bloom.
Wednesday 9 September 2015
Know yourself – so you can form a habit! (with a quiz)
This week I’ve been reading Gretchen Rubin’s new book ‘Better than Before’ which is a guide for how to help embed good habits (such as painting regularly) into our lives.
Gretchen explains that key to working out how best to do this (like so many things!) is to KNOW YOURSELF.
Read more and take a quiz! http://watercolourswithwow.com/know-yourself-to-form-a-habit-with-a-quiz/
Gretchen explains that key to working out how best to do this (like so many things!) is to KNOW YOURSELF.
Read more and take a quiz! http://watercolourswithwow.com/know-yourself-to-form-a-habit-with-a-quiz/
Thursday 20 August 2015
How to find inspiration right under your feet this summer
Childhood obsession
When I was 6 years old I became OBSESSED with micro-shells on a family beach holiday.
The sand on the beach there was amazing.
Each handful was comprised of
hundreds of pretty large grains of sand a couple of millimetres wide.
And for every 4 handfuls or so, there would be a micro-shell about the
same size hiding in amongst them.
These shells possessed a level of detail and beauty that my 6 year old mind found fascinating.
Friday 31 July 2015
How to paint a hairy black & yellow honey bee
If, like me, you’ve been working hard this summer, spare a thought for the bees out there.
Bees work REALLY hard.
They have been known to travel to destinations more than 3km away in search of food (flowers!).
Read more about them here: http://watercolourswithwow.com/how-to-paint-a-hairy-black-yellow-honey-bee/
Bees work REALLY hard.
They have been known to travel to destinations more than 3km away in search of food (flowers!).
Read more about them here: http://watercolourswithwow.com/how-to-paint-a-hairy-black-yellow-honey-bee/
Sunday 19 July 2015
How to paint a realistic white magnolia flower in watercolour
If you’ve ever tried painting them, you’ve probably experienced that white flowers can be tricky!
We don’t want them to look flat and lifeless, but the only way we can add shape is to work with grey paint to create shadows.
Read more: http://watercolourswithwow.com/how-to-paint-a-realistic-white-magnolia-flower-in-watercolour/
We don’t want them to look flat and lifeless, but the only way we can add shape is to work with grey paint to create shadows.
Read more: http://watercolourswithwow.com/how-to-paint-a-realistic-white-magnolia-flower-in-watercolour/
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