3 Steps to Overcome Art Slump

Step 1: Visit an Art Museum

How many of you artists have ever experienced what I’ll call Art Slump for lack of a better word? I was on the brink of Art Slump (AS) recently. Perhaps it’s the extremely warm weather we’ve been enjoying in this part of the world all summer long, but probably it’s just that I’m tired of the way I’m painting and perhaps I’m tired of what I‘m painting.

Here are the symptoms of AS: lack of enthusiasm to paint, unhappy with results of every effort, hoping to see instant improvement in your work, looking for inspiration from a better painter, longing for something new to paint, wishing for a better technique.

Any of this sound familiar? Then, you too may be on the brink of an AS, if you’re not already in it.

It’s not the place you want to spend much time in, but I do think almost every artist experiences AS at some point in his or her art life. It’s only natural because art and painting are creative efforts. Like the tide, creativity ebbs and flows. My experience has been that it’s much better when it’s flowing than ebbing.

What to do?

You can be irritable. You can be moody. You can wait it out. Or you can come to terms with it, which is the way most problems are eventually solved.

Step 1, go to the art museum of choice and find your favorite paintings or painters, and then spend at least two hours roaming, standing, and sitting among these paintings.

Step 2, go online and Google the medium or the painter to which you want to learn more about. For example, Google: watercolor techniques John Singer Sargent. You will find not only information on Sargent’s technique, but even better, links to other sites about watercolor and watercolorists you may never have heard of. It’s here you will be exposed to new ways of painting and new painters.

Step 3, select one or two of these new favorite painters or techniques and go to YouTube. In the search box, type in the painter’s name or technique. Then, if you select the videos carefully, be prepared to spend hours watching painters paint the way you’d like to paint.

Inspirational and a sure-fire method for overcoming AS.

Happy Painting!