Is your art studio a place of peace or chaos? How do we intentionally create a sense of ease in our art practice? On this episode, I’ll take a deep dive into how you can bring that ease into the studio, why hard work doesn’t make good art, and the benefits of bringing fun, curiosity, and playfulness into our art practice.
Outline of This Episode
- [0:57] What does (and doesn’t) ease in our art studio look like?
- [3:09] Why hard work doesn’t automatically make good art
- [11:04] Why ease and black and white thinking don’t mix
- [14:29] The benefits of fun, letting go, and choosing ease over hardship
Identifying ease
I think before we can start allowing a sense of ease in our art studio, we need to identify what that looks like in the first place. When we open up to ease, there is a level of comfort that grounds us and gives us a sense of certainty. We exude self-confidence and we trust our capabilities. We may not have all the answers. In fact, we KNOW we don’t. But we know that we can figure it out. Ease creates safety in our studio and helps us feel present and in the moment. However, knowing what ease is NOT helps us pursue it as well. When we lack ease in our studios, it looks like second-guessing ourselves and comparing our work to other artists. We make the process of art-making WAY harder than it needs to be and we constantly feel overwhelmed. All of that leads to feeling stressed and uncertain about the outcome of our art.
Paint healthier not harder
One of the big “ease killers” mentioned above is making art harder than it has to be. When we decide in our minds that a painting is going to be hard before we even approach the canvas, we’re automatically setting ourselves up for a lack of ease. Ironically, no artist on the planet wants their work to be so difficult, but we believe it because it’s what has been handed to us. So many of our underlying beliefs stand in opposition to that desire to bring ease into the studio. We just believe that if we don’t work hard, people won’t respect us. That if we don’t work hard, the work has no value. So we make things harder than they have to be just so that WE can believe the work has value. When in reality, the things that give the work value are our skill sets and our thinking. When we allow ourselves to loosen our grip on what the art-making process “should be” we open ourselves up to the possibilities of all it can be. And that includes creating with ease.
Creating Ease In Your Studio
What would it look like for you to let go of the idea that it’s hard to make art? What if art could be playful and fun? Maybe you start with the possibility that you COULD, MAYBE create with ease. Or maybe that’s too much for you right now. Maybe you just start with the idea that painting is neither easy nor hard. That being an artist is neither easy nor hard. Does your head want to explode just thinking that? Good, stay with it. This is why I do the work that I do. I love helping artists become aware of the thoughts that are holding them back.
Coaching shows us our blind spots. It helps us see what our thinking is creating and allows us to decide whether or not it’s helpful. We have the power to decide if a thought gets us to where we want to go or if it’s a thought that does the opposite. Then we get to decide what we want to clean up and what we want to stay the same. By cleaning up our thinking, we allow ourselves to experience ease in our studio. When we clean up our thinking, we approach our work with confident curiosity, knowing that whatever comes up, we can handle it. Listen to this episode for more insight on creating ease in your art studio!
Resources Mentioned on this episode
- The Savvy Painter Growth Studio
- The Savvy Painter Community
- Yes, You Can Create Flow On Purpose – EP 261
