This video and blog is about nurturing our creative selves and ways to think about change. As Summer unfurls here I can feel my creative energy shifting and changing. For me it feels like a time of year when I need to nourish and refill. A time to retreat into creativity, a time to replenish, a time to be more introspective...

This energy shift happens for me at this time every year. I think it is just part of how my creativity ebbs and flows.

What does it mean to retreat?

For me the Summer always feels like a good time to retreat a little. When I think of the word retreat I think of quietness, reflection, rest, introspection, a break from the day-to-day, replenishment of energy and restoring of enthusiasm, a tuning-in and listening to inner wisdom, a restorative slice of time which helps to fill the creative well… At this time of year I try and invite-in, carve out, and make space for a little more of this in my life.

Sustaining creativity

How can we best replenish and refill our creative well? It’s a good question to think about and answer. As artists or creative humans how do we each sustain and nourish our creativity in the short and long term. Here are some of the things which help me and which I’m planning to try and do this Summer:

1. WRITING AND REFLECTING

I find that writing helps me to think and to understand. It helps me to hear and articulate my own wisdom. I write about my hopes, my fascinations, what is calling to me, how I want my art to feel, how I want my art-making to feel, What I want to do more of, what I want to do less of, what I want to explore and evolve. Approaching my own art making process with a sense of inquiry and inquisitiveness.

2. READING

When looking to replenish and nurture my creativity I often turn to reading. I love reading about art and know there is so much to learn from other artist’s approaches. I find that researching art history and looking and thinking about the art that I love is an important way for me to better understand my own artistic sensibilities and sensitivities.

3. LOOKING AT ART

I find seeing art in real life to be stimulating. I’ll visit art galleries and try and experience as much art in person as I can, Hastings Contemporary is on my door step and I’d like to visit a few galleries in London if I can muster the effort…

4. LEARNING

I love to learn and often take courses and online classes. There is always something new to learn and I often find that just a small injection of something new or a reminder of something long forgotten can open the doors of possibility…

5. TIME IN NATURE AND IN NEW PLACES

Walks and time in nature make me feel replenished. I have spent too long inside over the last few years. I am planning on taking my sketchbook and my camera on micro adventures. To see what I can find in close-by, yet unexplored corners, I will actively seek things that interest me; shapes, juxtapositions, compositions, colours and textures. Being inquisitive about the world around me usually rewards me with new discoveries…

5. PLAYING ABOUT

I find that using a wide variety of art materials and just playing with them, mixing them, combining them in different ways helps me to think and discover through doing. I try and keep my expectations to a minimum and genuinely mess about…not creating anything of meaning, not expecting something to look good, imperfect, wonky and weird is the goal…

Parcels of time to pause…

So over the Summer I will retreat a little, I will find time to do a little more of the things that will nurture my creativity and I will endeavour to stop doing a few things which don’t serve my creativity.

I will do slightly less of the things I normally do and instead give myself a little time and space to do more of the things which my creativity calls for...writing, reading, learning, spending time in nature and spending time with my art materials with no agenda or expectation of outcome. Doing the things which I know will replenish and nourish me.

I will also rest and daydream and not expect too much of myself, so maybe I won’t do all the things on this list at all…but I will do what feels good. So expect fewer new videos from me over the Summer I’m just slowing down my output a little to find space for creative input…creating a little space to re-fill my well and let new and exciting ideas germinate and grow.

You may like to think about what nourishes and nurtures your own creativity? The following four questions are a great place to start:

• What do I want to START doing?

• What do I want to STOP doing?

• What do I want to do LESS of?

• What do I want to do MORE of?