The lockdown restrictions may not make that much of a difference to an artist who is used to spend all day in his/her studio sketching, painting and photographing their work, however, they can no longer go too far from home to get inspiration, they can’t organize art workshops in their studios and they can’t paint ‘en plein air’, except in their own garden or if they have inspiring views to capture. But how do these restrictions affect the day-to-day’s life of an artist and what do some of our artists do to overcome them?
Some artists are self-isolating and put their gallery on hold, but they are still active to keep their creativity flowing. Roz Edwards is creating a series of small canvases at the moment and she is posting quite regularly on her Instagram page. You can follow her here and admire her tree paintings, colourful meadows and gorgeous garden.
Other artists are still delivering their art, combining visits to the post office with shopping and their daily walk. But if you are an artist and you find yourself in a quiet spell, here are some ideas for you to try.
Offering online workshops
“One of the things I did find hard initially was stopping my art classes”, said our artist Gill Bustamante. “However, what I am now doing once a week is making “How to do it” videos of me demonstrating how to paint or draw just filming with my mobile phone. I then send the links to my students which is making them very happy! I am even getting back pictures of the art they made from watching them. Additionally, I post them on my local Facebook community pages and am getting great feedback from that too. I think we all feel we would like to help others somehow during this time and as an artist this is what I can best do to help. I now have complete strangers doing my lessons (which are free) and writing to me to show me their artwork including one mother and daughter team.”
You can see Gill’s videos on her YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/GillBustamante
Sketching everyday
“I am not a full-time artist, I also have a part-time day job which means that I don’t always have the time for my art. But with the lockdown restrictions, I found myself working from home and whenever I have a break, I would go out in the patio to relax. This is how I started to sketch my flower pots. I am not sure whether I will turn the sketches into paintings, but this is a good activity for an artist. It made me stop, look and study the flowers, then capturing their essence in my sketchbook”, said Teodora Totorean, one of our featured artists.
Finishing off some of your older projects
“I am taking paintings that have been around in the studio much too long and am adding to them or painting over them or tweaking or disposing of them to make them better. This means I will have better paintings to show once we are able to start moving about again!” said Gill.
Setting up a creative group for children
“Isolation is a difficult time for all of us”, said Bernadetta Dziubinski. “I think that all creative people use this time for their passion and I hope that they will infect people with love for art! I’m the mum of Tosia (7) and Tymon (9) and it’s only natural for them to participate in my artistic endeavours. Together, we came up with the idea that we could set up a creative group for children and use the art to fight boredom. On the first days of school closure, we created the Trentham BoredomBusters group on Facebook. It’s amazing how wonderful things are created by young artists and how much passion there is in them. It turns out that painting has attracted not only the kids but also their parents. It is a great experience and a lot of joy for kids, parents and for me too. Children copy famous artist masterpieces, implement their ideas and are very creative. Who knows, maybe in the near future their paintings can be found in Art2Arts Gallery”, the artist concluded.
Finding new passions
“Apart from painting, my second passion is interior design and I finally have the time to hang paintings around to show them in situ. I wouldn’t neglect my paintings, but at the same time, I like experimenting with new things like drawing, handmade graphics or reviving old frames for my paintings”, added Bernadetta.
Staying active on social media
As everything seems to be online these days, staying active on social media has never been so important. While some artists are still social-media shy and prefer to stay behind the scenes, other artists are more active than ever “as people want to see you staying productive”, said Ronald Hunter who’s got 29K followers on Instagram. Getting over 600 likes on one image of his art on a daily basis, Ronald is posting a mixture of finished artwork, WIP and artworks in situ which look rather stylish.
Get inspiration from your daily walk
“The other thing I am doing a lot of is walking”, added Gill Bustamante. “I always walked a lot anyway but now I am doing more especially as the weather is good. This adds inspiration for paintings and helps to stop you going mad. Being stuck in a house is very introverting as your attention and thoughts go inwards. Being outside and looking at beautiful nature though is extroverting and is one of the easier ways to get yourself feeling a whole lot better. I also take photos and do sketches that will add to my reservoir of potential paintings”.
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“Art is a medicine for everything, it gives the artist satisfaction and joy to the recipient. I hope that we’ll all make good use of the isolation time and the artistic works created now will give people a lot of positive energy in this very hard time”, concluded Bernadetta Dziubinski.
How about you? What do you do to overcome the isolation? What more can you add to the list?
