I have been an oil painting artist for many, many years and times have changed drastically over that period of time. There is now the Internet, social media, e-commence, SEO and all sorts of terminology that I struggle to keep up with. As you can imagine it has been hard at times to focus and stay motivated to produce original oil on canvas artworks. As you know Facebook is a very good tool for procrastination and time wasting!
As a mother of three it has taken many learning curves to get where I am today. As I mentioned above, a lot has changed since I started drawing, painting, printing and creating art as a child. One thing has remained though. The reason for art and how much joy it still brings me to play, create and improve my work.
How I stay motivated – artist motivation secrets!
- Taking frequent but small holidays to collect new painting inspiration. Having something new and exciting to paint (photo, magazine cutout or even outdoor environments) will motivate you to actually pick up the paintbrush and put the first mark on the canvas.
- Having a painting partner or group to spend time with really motivates you to start a new painting or improve an old one. The second opinion reminds the artist that you can always improve and artists tend to be very supportive of one another.
- Following other artists is another way to keep new ideas flowing. This is one advantage of social media, it is a great search engine to find artists that you like and usually their fan pages have a range of their artworks and daily activities.
Even though technology has changed the way artists now produce, collect inspiration and create art, the one important factor that always remains the same is motivation. An artist cannot continue to create quality artworks without motivation and the drive to improve. That is why a second, third or even fourth set of eyes on your work is important.
After writing this article I thought that it would be a bit hypocritical to preach all of the above without taking some action. So I created a page that I post one artwork at a time and let the general public be the critic my work. Please head over to this page to see the latest work.
The outcome of pushing through my motivational barriers
Please share this article with anyone who is struggling to keep motivated!
