Usually, we find inspiration to make art when we are not looking for it. We are in the shower or preparing dinner and ideas pop into our heads. We walk through nature or in a city and are inspired by what we see or experience.
Then we are so in the flow that we do not need extra inspiration. At other times we have to consciously search for it because we want to create but just don’t know how and what. We’re stuck.
To get the inspiration process going, I’ll give you 12 tips in this article.
Art sometimes has an elitist character. Artists are partly the cause of this – yes, guilty, me too at times *blushing* – by stating that the public does not understand our art and thus creating an unnecessary distance.
Self-proclaimed art lovers are partly the cause of this by being haughty and feeling they stand above the masses. While of course, everyone can enjoy art. And don’t worry: not all art needs to be understood or even liked.
In my (free) eBook “How to get the most out of a visit to the museum” I give tips to enjoy art, but museums usually require an entrance fee.
So how can you enjoy art for free?
Until 2016 I was a ceramicist. Nowadays I still consider myself an artist but I no longer have a kiln and work in other materials and other forms of art.
My ceramics was focused mainly on sculptural and abstract forms.
On previous occasions, I wrote about my photography. And made several How-To-articles about ceramics, but here I want to introduce you to my abstract ceramics*.
* Abstract means it’s not recognizable as a real or figurative subject
The biggest advantage of clay is that it is a flexible material as long as it is not fired. The downside is that the lifespan is short in some cases.
Sometimes such a short lifespan is the intention. In this article, I want to show the power of making a ceramic memorial, which was not supposed to last long.
An artist’s clear reasoning for allowing their work to be temporary can add an extra level of significance to their work.
In another article, I listed drawing and painting tools and materials. That is one way of classifying creative possibilities. Another way of identifying is by naming drawing and painting techniques and the style in which they are applied.
Techniques, materials, tools, and ways of using them are highly connected. Still, it makes sense to look at and organise them separately, because then we can work in a purposeful way. And we have handles for an artistic view of the work of others.
We dislike the crowds in the big cities more and more, yet, if we want to see beautiful things we will have to go there. Our solution is to spend the night in small towns during the holidays and take a day trip to a city.
On one of those holidays, we wanted to see the modern art in Bilbao and we saw and experienced 3 amazing places. All 3 within walking distance of each other, unless you are not able to walk well.
There is definitely more to see in the city, but we went for modern art; architecture, paintings, and 3D work.
If you start a new hobby, you will make mistakes. That’s part of the game, also when you make cyanotypes, and it’s okay.
Some mistakes are final, but that’s “tuition money” most of the time. Other errors can either be covered up or corrected. And some mistakes have a surprising effect. Beautiful results came from accidental errors.
The most important tip is to keep a log so that you know what you did. By the way, a log is also convenient to repeat successful results.
This summer I was able to rethink my criteria for reviewing ceramic art when Tom and I visited Villa Datris in France.
A themed exhibition is organized in this villa every year. To my great luck, the theme this year (2022) was ceramics. The ceramic art was grouped over 4 floors and there was also a lot of ceramic work to be seen in the garden.
Thanks to founder Danièle Kapel-Marcovici’s love for art and her altruism, the villa and its exhibition is free to enter from May to October each year. It’s a marvellous initiative and was an unexpected discovery for us.
Despite the industrialization of the area my favourite place to go was the Ruhr area in Germany. When I still lived in the Netherlands, it was a car journey of 1,5 hours from our house.
The area became the “European Capital of Culture” in 2010. This meant a facelift for a region that had been a dirty, neglected orphan since the mines and steel industry slowly came to a halt.
There are a lot of interesting places nowadays, but my favourites are Insel Hombroich and Zollverein Essen.