Author: Alison M Williams

Hello 👋

I decided to have a little break over the Easter holidays as things have been getting on top of me a bit lately but have managed to do a couple of creative things, I upcycled a couple of my old vests by tie dying them with bleach and painted over a small canvas that I’d done before but didn’t like.

I have mainly been selling some of my ridiculous hoard of belongings on eBay and Vinted over the past week or so and I have added these also.

Here’s my little painting, only 17cm square 😊

I will try and be a bit more productive next week!

This week’s title helpfully suggested by my son Remy, as I was struggling to think of something witty.  It actually seems quite appropriate as this week has been pretty devoid of new ideas, unfortunately my creative slump has continued and I haven’t been able to muster much enthusiasm.  I probably just need to eat more healthy food!

I have done a little work on my junk piece and my friend Jade suggested I use the colours in these photos of a deteriorating ornate gate as I took them on the same walk I collected all the bits and pieces on:

So I decided to have a play with those in my new home-made sketchbook as I’ve been meaning to get going with that for a while.

Then I made a larger version as this week’s painting.  I don’t like it!

I really haven’t been feeling it at all this week but I did quite enjoy playing in the sketchbook as there wasn’t any pressure for it to be anything in particular so I think maybe that’s what I need to carry on doing until something inspires me.  Or at least until the vitamins from the healthy food kick in!

Hello again 😊

I seem to have lost the creative flow a bit lately and with all sorts of other things being a bit stressful, I haven’t achieved an awful lot over the last couple of weeks.  I had a free weekend this weekend and honestly felt desperate for a holiday, however, funds only permitted a ‘staycation’, so I’ve tried to make the most of having some alone time and have done as many soothing things as possible.  I made a good start on my garden, went swimming,  did some baking and did this miniature painting.

It’s only 10cm square and actually I think it looks better in person, the colours aren’t quite as dark in real life and you can’t see the glittery bits so well here.  Anyway, it’s made with a wire twisty tie thing, a found flat back gem, a couple of bits from some old jewellery and a circular something I found on a pavement.

I’ve also been working on the first of the series I plan to do using bits I find whilst out with my friend Jade whilst she’s litter picking.  It seemed to take a very long time to prime the board, probably because it was covered in a very thirsty fabric!

All the bits of rubbish were found around my village on one hour’s walking around.  This is the process so far, I wanted to add some varied texture to the canvas to start with, particularly as it already had some bits sewn on- I wanted to disguise them and add a bit of interest.  I played around with the bits and pieces until I liked the arrangement.  This is how I have stuck them:

So now I will paint over the whole lot and decide if it needs any further textured bits before adding colour.  No idea at this point what colour palette to go with, maybe something that says ‘urban decay’!

Hopefully I’ll get my art mojo back a bit this week and have a bit more to show next time🙂

So after a very unproductive week art wise, I had a bit of a panic realising there was no piece of art to blog about and made a special Mother’s Day request of my children that they join me in a collaborative effort to create something that we can keep and hang on our walls.  It was however quite late in the day, so I had to dash around gathering all the bits we needed and get them both focused on the task in hand so that they wouldn’t be too late to bed (I failed a bit there, oops!)  Anyway, I think we all had fun 😊

I got out the messy mat, found a charity shopped canvas and gathered some old tile grout, a couple of boxes of recycled bits and bobs, some paint, brushes and glue and laid it all out on our dining table.

Jesse got to work mixing up some grout with pva glue, then he and Remy both smeared that over the canvas, ready for a layer of different cardboard, tissue paper and other textured papers, which all got slathered in copious amounts of pva mixed with water and the whole thing was very soggy!  They then chose some circular bits and pieces and stuck them where they wanted over the top and ran off to play Fortnite 🙄 whilst I dried it all with my heat tool.

I then gave it all a coat of white paint and called the boys back for the colouring stage.

I got them to choose a colour each, Remy chose cyan and Jesse chose dark blue.  I decided to add yellow ochre, magenta and white as I thought there would be lots of potential for interesting colour mixes, and they seemed to like my additions.  We all got to work playing with the paint and blending the colours into eachother.  Remy lost interest after a while but Jesse loves art so the pair of us carried on tinkering until Jesse also got fed up, then it was just me doing a few bits of detail.

This is where we left it.  I think it maybe needs just a little more but Jesse liked it like this so I think we’ll at least pause for a while, maybe hang it up somewhere and see how we feel a while later 😊

So now we have this lovely thing to keep that a bit of each of us has gone in to.  I can’t think of a better thing to do on Mother’s Day 🥰

Well, there hasn’t been an awful lot of art getting done this week but my poor Dad has been in hospital so I’ve spent quite a bit of time going between Leicestershire and Suffolk as well as looking after my boys and going to work. 

However, I have managed to finish off a circular painting I began years ago, as well as start a new sketchbook and go on a treasure hunt for objects to work into a painting and do my daily sketch, so it hasn’t been a disaster!

Here’s the strange circular piece:

I’m quite excited about the sketchbook work, I could do with having a place to experiment a bit more, to loosen up and be less precious.  I stopped at the Sue Ryder charity shop in Downham Market on my way to visit my parents this week and picked up a couple of books to turn into sketchbooks.

I tried to pick a couple that I thought looked old and less likely to be bought (sorry cricket fans!)

My lovely friend Jan had shown me how to turn old books into sketchbooks; it’s important to remove a page every 4ish pages along to allow for room for the book to grow as you cover the pages, and then once that’s done, stick every 2 pages together to make them more sturdy for working on top of.

So I started on the cricket book, I’ve begun covering over the cover but couldn’t wait to get playing so I did this on the first page:

I don’t often do drips but I quite like this!

I went out for a walk with my friend Jade whilst she was working for the council doing litter picking, and whilst she collected big bits of rubbish, I picked up all the little bits I could find that I thought would incorporate well into a painting.  I think we were out for about an hour and I couldn’t believe how many interesting things I found. 

So that’s something I’ll hopefully get done this week, as I plan to accompany Jade on many more of her litter picks.  We were chatting about it and came up with a plan that I’ll collect enough for a painting on each walk and then perhaps put on an exhibition later in the year.  Thought it might be thought provoking for the residents of my village!

It’s been a busy half term week this week so I haven’t been able to create quite as much as I would have liked, however I did manage to sit and doodle this (mainly watercolour) piece as well as finally finishing one of the pieces I’ve been struggling with for a long time. 

This is not one of my favourites and I still think it looks a bit odd but I’d gotten to the point where I was just fed up with looking at it, so I’m calling it done and it’s time to move on!

I’ve also been working on the travelling book with my artist friend across the road, Jan, doing my daily drawing and working on some bits for card making, so I’ve managed to squeeze a bit of creativity in to the spare moments!

I still haven’t finished either of the commissioned pieces and think I will outright refuse to do any in future!  I did show my colleague a photo of his work in progress and fortunately he approved, so I will try and get it done now.

I’d also quite like to find a solution with this rather large spiral painting that I began about 3 years ago as I think it has some potential.  I tried a few different ways of finishing the outer edges but nothing really felt right.  I think I know what I want to do with the central blue spiral so perhaps I’ll start there.

I’d like to do some experimental work in my sketchbook this week alongside getting at least one painting finished.  I’m finding it really useful doing the daily drawing in the book my Mum bought me for Christmas and it’s giving me lots of ideas for future paintings so feel like I should invest more in sketchbooks in general.

Cheerio for now 😊

Creative block is something most of us arty types have to wrangle with at some time or other, for different lengths of time, a lot or a little, for a huge number of reasons.

It infuriates me beyond belief how frequently I get to a certain point in a painting I was so excited and hopeful about at the start and suddenly have no idea what to do next, though I know it’s not finished. 

I’ve thought a lot about this troubling affliction over this past couple of weeks and how much of a failure I have been feeling about still not having completed the painting for my colleague. 

Having trawled the internet, it’s comforting to find I’m very much not alone.  I’ve read lots of articles and watched YouTube videos, many artists have shared a wealth of thoughts and solutions for creative block and of course different methods will have different levels of success for each person, but I’d thought I’d compile a list of my favourites as well as things I’ve learnt through my own experience so it’s all in one place to refer back to and maybe others will find it useful too.  This is mainly relating to how I work on abstract paintings, but I’m sure a lot of it will be relevant to many other creative endeavours.

1. Take a break

I’ve seen this advice a lot.  I’m often guilty of ignoring this as it can feel frustrating when you want or need to get a painting finished but it is a necessary part of the process.  Don’t waste time fighting with your work if inspiration is not forthcoming, walk away and try again later. Forgive yourself, refuel and relax.

Some ideas for things to do when taking a break include: drink some water, eat some healthy food or take a vitamin, go for a walk, run or swim, go outside and look at nature, have a bath or shower, do a puzzle, do some housework, call a friend, watch something entertaining or go to bed!  Alternatively…

2. Play

There are sooo many ways to interpret this but essentially art should be fun! Lose any fears you have, do what feels good, keep it light and joyful and trust yourself and the process.  Stop chasing perfectionism and try to adopt a devil may care attitude. I’ve often found that some of my most successful work has been when I wasn’t putting any pressure on myself to do anything in particular, and it just happened!

Get out of your comfort zone and do some experiments- perhaps play with a different medium, textures or colour scheme. Explore or invent new techniques. Use a sketchbook. (Turns out there’s an awful lot to be said for using sketchbooks so that will be saved for another post!)

Give yourself a challenge. Some ideas:

10 minute/ 10 second drawing

Limit the materials or colour palette you’re going to use.

Paint what the way you’re currently feeling would look like.

Do something monochromatic.

Paint with something unusual like sticks or cotton buds, or use your fingers.

Paint to a song and paint what it would look like.

Paint pretending to be a 5 year old!

Paint something silly or deliberately try to make a bad painting then laugh at it!

Make a jar containing bits of paper with different ideas, techniques, colours etc written on them and pick one or more out for a random starting prompt.

Start a new piece of art or even more than one, it’s okay to have a number of works on the go at once, sometimes the solution to what’s wrong on one piece will arrive whilst working on another.

Use the time you’ve set aside to make art creatively, however you can. Do whatever you feel like as long as you’re not going days or weeks at a time without being creative.

3. Spend some time researching

Look through books, Pinterest, Facebook art groups and search the internet to find other art you like that inspires you, then compile a collection of your favourites to look back on whenever you need an inspiration boost. Think about how they have been created and practice replicating bits of other people’s work to get new ideas to inform your own.

Watch YouTube videos and tutorials about techniques, art theory and works in progress. Learn as much as you can about the elements of composition to truly understand why something might look ‘off’.

Sometimes I take a photo of a work in progress and do a Google image search on it to see what it shows me, I might get new ideas, find someone else’s work that I love or it might just let me know whether I’m on the right track for the feel of a piece I was aiming for and if it fits with other similar things I like. I have a Pinterest board for experiments/ work in progress which I use in the same way, as Pinterest will show you similar/related images underneath everything you click on.

Taking a look back through your sketchbooks can also remind you of things you want to try, recreate or continue working on and can often spark new ideas.

4. Do a ‘brain dump’

Write down all the thoughts you have about a piece, anything that might be bothering you or what could be causing the stagnation.  Write them randomly as they pop into your head in no particular order, it doesn’t have to be in lines on the page or look any particular way, just get the thoughts out until everything is exhausted.  I find this helps to release negative feelings and make sense of the whirling thoughts and sometimes new ideas and solutions arise.

5. Put some music on

Or a podcast, radio show or audiobook. Music especially can help shift your mood if that’s what’s getting in the way of being creative!

6. Teach someone else

I’ve often found that showing others how to achieve a particular technique or helping them learn to work with a new medium has helped me on my creative journey. It boosts confidence as you find out how much you do already know, it can reignite your passion as you are reminding yourself of things you love doing and can also spark new ideas, in the same way as if you…

7. Talk to other artists

Ask artistic friends to look at your work and give you their thoughts.  Bouncing ideas off someone else often helps to clarify things, gain a different perspective or generate wonderful new ideas.  There are lots of lovely artists on Facebook groups who will happily give feedback if requested, so it’s sometimes helpful to post works in progress.

The above should all help to be able to…

8. Look at it with fresh eyes

This could just mean after having taken that break and spending some time physically away from it, or it could be finding new ways to look at what you’ve done.  I often look at my work in the mirror or in photographs that I take regularly through the process to get a different perspective and sometimes it’ll give me a little spark of an idea.  Sometimes it helps to edit the photos and look at them in greyscale, as this can highlight imbalances in contrast/tone. 

Turning the piece on it’s side or upside down can help to see it in another way and can make an area that isn’t working more obvious.  Sometimes inspiration might strike and prompt you to add something, then when you turn it back the other way it feels better.

Try overlaying sections with pieces of paper to test whether it would be better without them and imagine what could be different. Squint at it. Try looking at it from much further away. Look at it in a literal different light!

9. Nurture self belief

Talk to yourself kindly. Look back at past work you were happy with, positive comments people made on things you posted online, think about any work that has sold or that other people have appreciated.

Pretend you know exactly what you’re doing (fake it ’til you make it!) and don’t let yourself get scared. The key thing is to lose the fear of it being a failure or a mess. Making mistakes is how we learn and grow, so embrace when it doesn’t go ‘right’. You can always just paint over it if you don’t like it and it will evolve into something else. Keep doing that until you do like it! Remember there is no such thing as perfection, some people will love something that others hate.

10. Practical Steps

It can help before you begin a piece to set some boundaries for yourself so it doesn’t get too overwhelming, for example, choose a limited colour palette, number of materials, size, theme etc. Come up with a brief for yourself.

Keep going. Take the pressure off by taking small steps. Begin on a ‘stuck’ piece by only committing to doing a tiny bit, even if it’s just one mark, or telling yourself you’re just going to spend 10 minutes on it. Often that’s enough to get you in to creative mode and you find you don’t want to stop. Try working on a few paintings at time, alternating and doing just a little on each.

Collaborate with the piece and ask it questions as if it were a living entity. Let it speak to you and tell you what it needs. Does it want a bit more red in that corner? A splash of something contrasting near the top left? Is there enough drama, or too much? Imagine alternatives- what if this grey section had a pop of lime green? Would that light area be better if it were darker?

Stand back a lot and look at the piece as a whole as you work.

Ask yourself why you don’t like the bits you don’t like. Start working on the bit you dislike the most, then move on to the next ‘worst’ bit.

Try making a drastic change, perhaps something you wouldn’t have naturally been inclined to do, like adding a chunk of a colour you weren’t planning to use or covering over a large section. It can be scary to paint over something you’ve already put time and effort into, not knowing whether what you may do will be better or worse, but if it wasn’t working anyway, what do you have to lose? If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again!

Switch things up a bit, use different tools or brushes to apply the paint differently and make different kinds of marks. Try working faster than usual. Try using your non dominant hand, or even your foot, or mouth!

Try not to get too attached to what you’ve done too early on, this can stifle your creativity by making you too protective of parts of it, which can prevent the free flow of mark making and you can ‘clam up’, which stops it becoming what it was destined to be!

Let go of the thoughts of what it was going to end up like in your head before you began. Let it evolve and grow naturally.

There are no failed paintings, only unfinished ones with endless possibilities, so never give up!

Phew. Now I’ll surely never get stuck again!?! What do you do to get rid of creative block? I’d love to hear from anyone who can add any other pearls of wisdom, please leave me a comment 😊

I have spent the last week pondering the seemingly huge question of how to break creative block and ended up going down quite the rabbit hole, so I have a whole load of thoughts on paper which I will be organising and posting soon.

For now, this is my creative activity over the past few days…

I don’t have much to say about this other than the fact that I had an urge to do something different, with paint and pens and I wanted to try and work quickly, without inhibitions.  It was an experiment in overcoming creative block.  I kind of like it!

I then made this piece to go in a frame my friend gave me so I can give it back to her (for decluttering purposes, mainly!):

And lastly I needed to make a birthday card for my friend who is colourblind, so I doodled with primary colours as I heard that they are most easily seen and I know he finds differentiating between red and green hard. I then cut a section out of the doodle and framed it on the front of the card. I already gave him the card so here is what is left!

I was trying so hard not to be precious and create freely. Overall I think it looks an awful mess but there are a few interesting sections when they’re isolated with a viewfinder so I’m calling it a success!

Cheerio for now 😊

This week I have been trying to work on about 7 different pieces, thinking if I just keep doing a little bit on each and then moving on, eventually I will get them finished. The trouble is I get sidetracked and keep beginning more new pieces, so the frame and canvas graveyard is probably going to be around for a while!

I seem to get to a point with most of my work where I get stuck and then I have to put them aside for a while. I think over the next week I will try and find tips online on how to combat this and collate them on my post next week!

Anyhoo, I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked due to being poorly with a very nasty migraine, but here are this week’s offerings:

This little thing (14.5cm x 9.5cm) was one I started this week after my previous experiments with rustiness. Here I have utilised some lovely painty old baby wipes, some silica gel balls, some old cement and a couple of heart shapes I created ages ago with some wall filler and pizza boxes.

I’ve also been trying to work on my rainbow coloured piece for my colleague but alas I have still not broken through the creative block… however, I did make this bright and cheerful thing whilst I was trying to figure it out. This was one I started months ago.

It’s 51cm x 20.5cm. Made with something from an old necklace, a curtain ring, tissue paper, some bits of bandage from when my friend’s son broke his arm (!) and old tile grout. The canvas was being thrown in the bin by a charity shop.

Maybe I should just do a series of ‘practice’ pieces and see if he likes any of them instead?!