How to Dig Yourself Out of a Creative Rut

A painting rut can be so discouraging to artists of any kind, but they come with the territory. This past January, I experienced my first one since starting my business. I went from feeling so inspired and wanting to paint everything and anything, to feeling frustrated and disappointed in everything I was creating. The last thing I wanted to do was share my work with anyone (which turns out is pretty important when you paint full-time). Thankfully though, I had prepared for this and knew what to do when it hit me. Here are a few tips from some of my favorite mentors on how to get yourself over a creative slump:

REST - Sometimes creative ruts can come simply from a place of burn out. After getting through my first holiday season as a business owner, I’m fairly certain that’s what drove my first one. I decided to take a few days off to rest and recover and not put pressure on myself to create. I instead read, took walks in nature, and listened to good music. I spent lots of time with my family, and gave myself lots of rest.

GO BACK TO THE BASICS - I decided to give myself a break on painting and just return to drawing. I started with small 2 x 2 sketches in my sketchbook and grew larger each day. By day 4, I was back to sketching large landscapes and laying on blocks of oil paint.

TRY SOMETHING NEW - As a landscape painter, I used to believe that abstracts weren’t my thing. But when I hit my creative slump hard in January, I decided to just try something completely new. I started to play with some of my favorite colors and tools, and the next thing I knew I had an abstract collection in front of me that I was in love with. I initially didn’t think I would share it with anyone but a few collectors have expressed interest and now they are headed of to a couple shows this spring.

CREATE SOMETHING SMALL DAILY - Once I started to come out of my rut, I dove in head first. I told myself I would create something every single day. It didn’t have to be perfect, but I just had to make something. Some days, it was a tiny 4 x 4 still life and other days it was a 24 x 48 landscape, but I tracked my habit every day and made creating a priority.

I’m happy to report I am now out of my creative funk and back to feeling inspired and ready to paint every day. Hoping I don’t experience one again any time soon but if and when I do, I’ll know just what to do.

Until then, wishing all of us inspiration, endless creativity, and joy in the process!