The Secret to Staying Creative

There comes a time in the life of every artist when the biggest question is this: What is the secret to staying creative?

Let’s talk about that.

The Secret to Staying Creative

My Story

I’ve been an artist since I was old enough to hold those big, fat Crayola crayons. I remember my Mom telling me that she cut apart brown grocery bags so I could draw on them, and that I drew elaborate woodland scenes complete with tree roots in the ground and deer in the forest.

I don’t remember coloring books back then, but I’m sure I must have had them. It seems unlikely there were none, but if there were, none of them survived.

I do remember paint-by-number kits and the herd of horses of I painted in those sets.

When I turned seventeen, I sold my first portrait for real money. Once I got a taste of the possibilities, I never looked back.

The Dream

For many years, I was happy working a full-time job and painting in the off hours. I believed I would eventually reach the point at which I could live on art income and wouldn’t need a job. Painting portraits of horses was no struggle. I enjoyed doing it, seeing how each portrait was better than the previous one, and steadily improving.

In those years, I was able to turn out a completed oil painting in about a month. Since I usually had more than one in progress all the time (so I could have one to work on while another was drying), it wasn’t unusual to finish 14 or more paintings each year.

As I look back on it, I never really had a lot of portraits waiting to be done. But there always seemed to be a new one to do when one was finished and that was enough.

I even sometimes painted things for myself when time allowed. A lot of those were landscapes inspired by Bill Alexander on his The Magic of Oil Painting TV show (1974 to 1982).

Painting portraits took me to a lot of places I would never have gone otherwise. Photo shoots to other states and into Canada and a show in Louisville, Kentucky for the 2003 Kentucky Derby, for example. It introduced me to people all over the country who I would never otherwise have met. It was exciting back then. Always new.

And it was fun because I was working on a dream, you see.

The Obstacles

But I lost something along the way. At some point, the fun started seeping out of the process. Oh, I still loved to see an especially well-done passage in a portrait and I was always motivated by the responses of clients when they first saw their finished portraits.

Despite those things, I began losing the dream. Perhaps there was a bit of self-sabotage involved because I remember thinking for the longest time that if I just painted enough portraits, people would start coming to me. I’ve been at this business long enough now to know the danger of such an attitude. It takes marketing to sell even the best artwork, and my marketing was sorely lacking. I just didn’t think I needed it.

So it should have been no surprise when finished artwork didn’t sell as well at exhibits and shows as I would have hoped.

Nor was it surprise when artwork turned into work or when my attitude gradually declined into a sort of hopelessness that things would ever work out.

Believe it or not, there were even a couple of times when I gave up art altogether, once for two years.

What I Learned

While those years may have been wasted for creating new artwork, they weren’t wasted overall. I did learn a couple of things that applied to art and to making art.

First and foremost was learning the error of my ways in thinking that artwork sells itself. It doesn’t. So I had to get past that notion right away.

I also had to get past the notion that lack of sales implied lack of quality in my work. That isn’t true, either. Lack of sales often has more to do with lack of marketing.

But I think the biggest lesson I learned was why I painted in the first place. Why was it so important to get out the paints and brushes (and later the pencils) and make art? There are two basic reasons.

Motivation

Motivation is something outside yourself. You paint in general or you paint certain things to get money or recognition. There’s nothing wrong with either. For a lot of us, if we don’t sell at least a few things, there’s no money for new art supplies.

But if money or recognition is the only reason you’re making art, then when those things don’t happen, making art becomes work. Or worse, it becomes pointless.

Inspiration

Inspiration or passion or whatever you want to call it comes from inside you. It’s that quality that makes you want to make art even if no one else notices or cares or if there’s no money in it.

It’s something that has to be expressed in some way creatively.

I remember the days and years when I could stand at an easel and get so much in the zone that time ceased to exist. I didn’t notice when I got hungry or needed to take a break or even when people passed by and spoke to me. I was in another world and the only thing that existed there was making art.

Honestly? It’s been quite a long while since I’ve been that much in the zone.

What Happened to Me?

As I look back on my career as an artist, I think the biggest hindrance happened when I forgot why I was making art in the first place. I forgot the fire to create that was inside me and started focusing on end results. What were those end results? A self-sustaining art business and making money.

Now there’s nothing wrong with either of those things. They’re good goals.

But when they took the place of creative passion, I lost something vital. I lost the urge the continue painting even when things didn’t sell and when there was no financial reward. Once that happened, it was all too easy to fall into the trap of lost creativity.

And I have been there more times than I care to consider.

The Secret to Staying Creative: The Bottom Line

This is a lesson that I think most of us need to learn over and over and over again. If you’re trying to make a business with your artwork, it’s very easy to get so caught up in the details of starting or running a business that you forget why you’re an artist in the first place. I’ve been there. I wrestle to get away from such thinking often.

So we need reminders.

I was reminded again of this when I watched the June livestream from Andrew Tischler. Andrew is my favorite oil painter and paints the most gorgeous landscapes. He talked quite about about these things in that livestream. His comments hit home with me big time.

And that’s the reason behind this rather unusual post. You see, if I needed to hear that sort of thing, then I know there some among my readers who also need to hear that sort of thing.

So what’s the real secret to staying creative?

Knowing the deep-down-inside reason you make art in the first place. If you know and understand that, then the presence or absence of outside motivations won’t make much of an impact.

You’ll continue making artwork no matter what just because you can’t help it.

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