Maintaining Connection in Difficult Times
The news can feel heartbreaking. I try to live and teach that to keep making our best art, we need to keep our focus on the internal instead of the external news. Paying attention to how we are feeling, what inspires, and what brings us alive is truly helpful. However, when the external problems are so big, it is hard not to let them affect you. And as a result, it can feel like making art is somewhat irrelevant and frivolous. So I want to suggest a more meaningful way to reframe this activity called artmaking.
Watch here…
Making our art is all about making connections — it moves us towards a connection to ourselves and others. Non-artists are also connected to our cherished vision when they experience or collect our art. This shared experience of what we make helps create a more connected and, as a result, a safer, kinder world. Making our art is a practice of showing the world what truly matters. And it makes a difference.
How do you think about your art practice in times like these? Let me know in the comments.
Last week my friend and Mindfulness Coach, James Higgins, and I had a wonderful conversation all about how to hold ourselves and our art more thoughtfully in these times. It helped. Our unedited conversation is coming out this Wednesday on the Art2Life Podcast. I hope you can have a listen.
Click here to subscribe and listen to the Art2Life Podcast.
Have a blast art-making today!
Nicholas
PS Check out the Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group. Every day, artists from all over the world are creating amazing art, and you are invited!
Staying at the Helm in Your Practice
There’s a commercial aspect to art-making that can be a challenge. Once as an illustrator, I worked on a project that was so lucrative I couldn’t turn it down. However, the art direction was so specific and outside my taste that I ended up making something awful. Though the money was good, the work killed my spirit. Another project came along that was far less lucrative but gave me the freedom to do what I wanted. Because this was so personally gratifying, it gave me momentum, and confidence and taught me the power of making work for yourself first.
Hear my story…
Even commissions can feel less gratifying because they’re usually derived from past work we’ve moved away from. Staying at the helm of your art-making makes your work stronger. Doing what you love makes success more likely.
How do you keep your art practice, yours? Let me know in the comments.
This week’s podcast relates to this idea as I have a conversation with a very commercially successful surface designer whose work remains so personally hers. Listen to how she beautifully integrates her work and her life. I hope you’ll join me.
Click here to subscribe and listen to the Art2Life Podcast.
Have an awesome Sunday!
Nicholas
PS Check out the Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group. Every day, artists from all over the world are creating amazing art, and you are invited!
Connecting your Art to your Life
There’s an old shipyard near my studio. It’s a place where I find beautiful patinaed colors and shapes amongst all the worn and broken pieces of boats. What’s so cool is that these things relate to my art. Going here strengthens this connection and gives me inspiration for my art.
Here is what I mean.
Your art practice can have a life of its own but connecting it to your daily life is powerful. The feelings in your art can be reflected by the music you choose and the people and experiences in your day. This connection of art and life generates momentum and creates potency in your art.
How do you bring your life into your art? Let me know in the comments.
In this week’s podcast, I have a conversation with artist Jonah Allen. Whose life and art are fully connected to the sea. His world is surfing, photographing, and exploring dark and light wave patterns.
Don’t miss this episode!.
Subscribe Art2Life Podcast.
Have a fabulous Sunday!
Nicholas
PS Check out the Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group. Every day, artists from all over the world are creating amazing art, and you are invited!
The essential ingredient in your Art
One thing is essential in your Art. It pretty much guarantees your progress. It can be lost but also, thankfully, quickly found, especially when we are reminded of it, which is the whole point of this Sunday’s vlog.
You might have already guessed, but I am talking about passion. That energy or juice for some part or hopefully all of your art that inexplicably attracts you. The kind of tug towards something that you can’t resist. Passion is powerful.
Have a listen as I explain why.
We have to constantly check in with ourselves to maintain this passion for whatever we are making. It could be a painting, a sculpture, or just about anything. The point is that we need to feel a strong desire towards our Art. And if we don’t, we need to change whatever we are making until we do.
What part of your Art do you feel the most passionate about?
Let us know in the comments.
Maintaining passion sustains a kind of next-level focus and attention that results in the accelerated growth of your Art. It is also super amazing to be around this kind of energy.
This Wednesday on the Art2Life Podcast, I dive into the world of cooking with Joanne Weir, a world-renowned chef and one of the most passionate people I have met in a long, long time. So listen to what is possible when passion and creativity are combined. The results are simply delicious.
Subscribe to the Art2Life Podcast here.
Have a great Sunday,
Nicholas Wilton
PS Check out the Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group. Every day, artists from all over the world are creating amazing art, and you are invited!
Creating Your Art from Within
I’m often asked what it takes to be an artist. There are so many contributing factors. However, there is one that stands out above all the rest. Surprisingly, it is often the one that is overlooked the most. It is quite simple. It is you. It’s about looking inside yourself and remembering what lights you up. It’s so easy to get derailed by comparing yourself to others or giving in to limiting beliefs that hold you back. There are so many distractions along the way. However, paying more attention to what brings you alive is the key to moving your art and you forward.
Have a look here.
If you aren’t paying attention, you can miss the clues of what truly matters to you. A creative mindset cultivates discernment. It’s thinking about what you say yes to! This mindset will help you leverage your intuition in your art-making. Art2Life and the Creative Visionary Program (CVP) evolved from this powerful realization. The early weeks of CVP are devoted to this personal inquiry so that you can then embark upon making powerful, authentic art.
How do you tend to your creative mindset? Let me know in the comments.
Coming out this Wednesday on the Art2Life podcast, I am telling how I learned the importance of cultivating a creative mindset, which led to the small miracle that grew into Art2Life.
Enrollment for the Creative Visionary Program is open for a few more days!
Click here to learn more about the Creative Visionary Program
Have an awesome Sunday!
Nicholas
Teaching your Art improves your Art
About 25 years ago, I worked in a small isolated studio. I’d work on my art all day long without seeing anyone, and I became lonely. As a result, I came up with the idea of maybe teaching a workshop to get me out around more people. As I was figuring out what to teach, I realized I needed to simplify what I’ve learned from my art first before I could help anyone else. So I began to ask myself some simple questions, which led to a breakthrough in my art and life.
Here’s what happened.
Simplifying an understanding of my art back then became the foundation of the Art2Life principles I still use in my teaching and my art today! Teaching is one of the most powerful ways to clarify our art. It starts with asking yourself the right questions to find your visual voice. Next, writing down a few simple ideas can provide direction whenever you need it. The learning goes even deeper if you share it! Finally, it’s valuable information others can apply to their work.
How do you simplify your ideas about your art? Let us know in the comments.
This week’s podcast is with one of the world’s best art teachers, Art2Life Coach, and artist Susan Melrath! Hear how teaching has made all the difference in her art and life. Click on the link below to subscribe.
Subscribe to the Art2Life Podcast!
Speaking of teaching, the FREE ART2LIFE WORKSHOP starts tomorrow, Monday, February 14th! I’ll share some powerful and actionable Design, Value, and Color ideas. In a matter of a day or two, you can shift your thinking and your art. It is going to be a fantastic workshop! I hope you can join us!
Click here to sign up for THE FREE ART2LIFE WORKSHOP!
Have a beautiful Sunday,
Nicholas
How to keep your Art Conversation going
How can we fit an art practice into a busy life? The stress of finding the time can cause you to stop making art. Getting into the studio frequently to keep the artistic fire burning is hard to pull off. However, connecting with your art in other ways daily can make this possible. It is all about continuing the art conversation, which can happen in so many ways…
Have a look here.
This conversation doesn’t just happen in the studio. Connecting with your art daily, wherever you are, simply thinking about your art and how it can relate to what you come across in your day can keep your art conversation going. For example, noticing the colorful ingredients seen while cooking your dinner is a perfect example of connecting your art world to the outside world. Perhaps it is a conversation you had, or you’re trying something new — these experiences can add, influence, and trigger new ideas that can help improve your art. So many things can contribute to your art.
Usually, I paint in my white, windowless studio, but I recently had a rejuvenating experience painting at the beach with a friend of mine. I was so amazed by how stimulating it was! Being surrounded by the colors, the air, the birds, plus our conversation got me so fired up I couldn’t wait to get back to my studio to incorporate some of the new experiences I had that day.
How do you keep your conversation going in your art practice? Let me know in the comments.
This Wednesday is a podcast from that Plein air day with the amazing figurative and landscape painter, Doug Andelin. The setting inspired a great conversation, including Doug’s wisdom about painting.
Click here to listen and subscribe to the Art2Life Podcast.
Coming up on February 14th, we’re starting the FREE ART2LIFE WORKSHOP. It’s all about giving you the insight and the tools to make your art more personal and amazing!
Move your art forward!
Click here to sign up for THE FREE ART2LIFE WORKSHOP!
Have a great time inside or outside your studio today!
Nicholas Wilton
Your Art is an Invitation
The art we make is like an invitation, first for ourselves and then for others. Like an actual invitation to a place or event, our art encourages those interested to come into our created world. So, it’s crucial to understand how others experience that first glimpse, that invitation of our art, so we can increase the numbers who might show up. But, what makes a great invitation?
Listen to this.
Here is a clue. More people will say yes to your invitation if it depicts a place they haven’t been to before. In other words, your art invitation needs to be different, and if it is, they will come. The simplest way to keep your art fresh and different is to remember to make it personal. After all, you are already unique. It’s so simple. People will always say yes to new experiences in art and life.
How might you improve your invitation to make it irresistible? Let me know in the comments.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! The Free Art2Life Workshop is starting February 14th – Valentine’s Day! It’s all about the tools and principles to make your art more personal and inviting!
Click here to sign up for THE FREE ART2LIFE WORKSHOP!
Have a great day in the studio!
Nicholas
PS This Wednesday’s podcast features an artist from Vienna whose wild and powerful work totally invited me in. She’s brilliant. Join me Wednesday to find out who! Subscribe to the Art2Life Podcast.
Look to your art to improve your art
Even if a painting is not working, I can always find some part I like. These are clues as to where to go next.
Let me show you what I mean…
Even in the mess we make, there’s hope! Beautiful clues emerge, like certain colors together or how a line relates to a shape, to inform your way forward and keep you progressing. Rather than looking at others’ work, staying immersed and attentive in your art-making will provide the solutions. It’s a self-generating process that comes from within.
Do you find your way by looking at your art? Let me know in the comments.
In this week’s Art2Life Podcast, I talk with extraordinary New York-based painter, Rob Szot, all about how the actual process of making his art has helped him discover his art. For years, Rob has been finding his way by paying attention and simply being present. It is a refreshingly simple approach to art-making.
Listen and subscribe to the Art2Life Podcast.
I am also super excited to announce the Free Art2Life Workshop is back and we’re starting on February 14th – Valentine’s Day! This year it is going to be even better than last year. I hope you’ll join me.
Click here to sign up for THE FREE ART2LIFE WORKSHOP!
Have a blast art-making today!
Nicholas
The Key to Breakthroughs
The art-making journey has many high points, like when the art comes so quickly or sells. But there’s one thing that tops all others, and that’s breakthroughs. These change everything. I am always curious about breakthroughs and how we can experience more of them.
Here’s how I think about it…
Making repeated decisions based on what you love or are attracted to is the key to manifesting breakthroughs. Taking small steps towards what feels more personal leads to a noticeable shift in your art. Consistently acting on what feels good to you as you work leads to breakthroughs.
How have you noticed any breakthroughs in your work recently? Let us know in the comments.
In this week’s Art2Life podcast, I speak with a Creative Visionary Program alum whose work recently shifted. It suddenly became much stronger. Has she noticed these dramatic shifts? Is this a breakthrough? I hope you’ll join me for our interesting conversation that is all about breakthroughs.
Listen and Subscribe to the Art2Life Podcast!
Have a great Sunday!
Nicholas
PS Check out the Free Art2Life Artists Facebook Group. Every day, artists from all over the world are creating amazing art, and you are invited!
