I am a maker of crafts – I spread my wings far and get distracted with making beautiful things all the time. I am always encouraging and promoting creativity wherever I go. But my true passion, where the real calm and insight happens for me is in the process of intuitive art making, which I first discovered as Spontaneous Art in 1999. It is my dream that at BCREATIVE WITHIN, we can create a space to invite you to discover this inspiring creative process.
When I first learned about spontaneous art in 1999 as an Art Therapist trainee, I knew that it was important. There was an honesty and freedom about feeling unencumbered when it came to making art. This was not an art class, it was a class focused on letting go and trusting the process. We were given paper and paint and no preconceived ideas of what to do, just an invitation to dialogue with the art materials and make our marks in whatever way we wanted to at the moment. There was no ‘heady’ theory guiding this, it was pure honest and open expression. This was so exciting and liberating! When I worked as an Art Therapist I always tried to guide clients towards this process. As I watched clients open up to their spontaneous expression it was so much more reflective of where they were at than their words. It was gentle, insightful, energetic and empowering. It was the truest form of expression I had witnessed.
Our purpose at BCREATIVE WITHIN is not to teach art class or provide therapy, we are simply big believers in opening our minds and our potential for greatness through creativity. Through the process of intuitive art making you will learn to nurture your creative soul and find ways of expressing yourself that will empower and move you to be creative in new exciting and confident ways. It is about listening to yourself and trusting yourself without judgement. And if all that seems like a massive jump into the unknown, then know at the end of the day it is simply creating space to have fun while making art!
So what is Intuitive Art?
For me, intuitive art is about learning to listen to yourself and giving yourself permission to let it all go in your creative expression. It is a multi-sensory experience of taking in what you see, hear, smell, touch and channeling it through your art. Tapping into this you learn to trust yourself to find ways to express yourself on a canvas or paper in whatever way you want. It is about letting go and learning to be playful with art. Life is full of inspiration all around us, how can we learn to channel it and open ourselves to the potential of this creative beauty and not get bored with the same old routines in our daily lives? Learning new techniques that can help tap into our creative energy will open up the greatest possibilities of an engaging and fulfilling life.
What to expect
My favourite quote that I get ALL THE TIME, is “I am not an artist”. And my immediate response is, “fantastic, now you have the opportunity to become a creative!” I say this light heartedly because there is no special designation to becoming an artist, aside from going to a traditional art school. And we all know that comes with a huge amount of rules, rigidity and critiques and no guarantees of ever becoming an artist. Intuitive Art is what drives someone to want to be an artist. We get the joy of kicking that art critic to the curb and igniting the creativity not the doubt.
I can also tell you what you won’t get and that is us telling you what to do. No one will ever make the same piece of art in an intuitive art workshop because we are not all the same. We celebrate diversity in a BIG WAY here and we are here to help guide that process for you safely.
The Process
I like to introduce painting to tap into the creative intuitive process. It is by no means the only way to create intuitive art but it is a lot of fun and a great way to let go. I like to begin an intuitive painting session with some kind of guided grounded meditation or gentle yoga movements. This allows for the mind to clear and the body to relax and bring us into the present moment. Each person has a creative station set up with all supplies ready to go. YEAH! And this is also when I get to put my music on. Music playlists are a big part of having fun in this process so you will get a wide range of grooves from old school hip hop to classical music. Through some prompts and gentle introduction you begin your creative endeavour on canvas or paper. This is where the magic begins and we get to have fun and let go! Anything can happen and you learn to trust and listen to what your creativity wants to do. Sometimes I frequently find myself asking the question, “what would happen if i did this?’, and then I just do it. It is that simple and liberating. The more you ask that question the more you will learn to let go and your creative energy and confidence will grow.
Closure
Creating and holding the space for creative liberation is a process that we highly respect and value. Just as important to how we start an intuitive art workshop, how we bring closure is equally as important. Depending on the workshop, we generally like to invite everyone to come together at the end of the workshop and share their experience. They may wish to share their art or not. This is kept light and on point, NO FEAR, NO CRITICS allowed. It is the respect for the creative process that we make time for and the acknowledgment of the risk of becoming a CREATIVE SUPERSTAR! It is also important to note that sometimes the process of letting go may bring up questions or tap into an emotion that might be difficult. For this reason, we provide a small journal for recording any thoughts, feelings, questions that you might want to explore further once the workshop is over.
Further exploration
This is a most exciting, infectious kind of creative pursuit and you might want to look further into other people who have established themselves in the intuitive art making world. Here are a few inspiring women that I have come across who have captured the essence of what intuitive art is all about.