Why do you create art?Art is a necessity for me now – I can no more imagine going a day without something to do with my creative practice than I could imagine going through a day without air. This is my means of connection to something profoundly beautiful and bigger than just me – it gives me perspective and direction, keeps me humble and in awe. Putting pigment to substrate has become a deeply nourishing, connective practice. I create because I am curious, I am inspired, I want to celebrate and share. I want to celebrate nature, the everyday splendour of the world, and I want to honour that divine/universe given insight and learned skills by sharing, to both build community and to spark that curiosity and wonder in others.
What is it about making art that stirs your soul?When I create, I am deeply connected to my subject, and to the creative energy that flows all around us. Everything else melts away. My heart is light, my breath is slow and deep. I am still and I unfurl in presence, and it is divine. It gives me perspective and fosters gratitude.
What is currently inspiring you?Always, always, the land and our non-human kin. I seem to be on a particular creative focus-journey of birds at the moment, I am letting that lead me where it may. But any landscape, any creature, they all have me itching to honour their beauty in pigment on substrate.
What does your creative Practice look like?I became a full-time artist this year, 2022. While I came back to creating towards the end of 2016, my decision to become a full time creative happened at the end of 2019, when I could see how fulfilled creating made me feel. After making that decision to pursue this way of life, I was working at my easel and my business in every spare moment I could find while also working a very full-on day job. In many ways, I still do work at my business and easel at every spare moment – but now this is my full-time focus, and I can be more structured and thoughtful and easeful about what I am doing. It is truly wonderful; I love what I do immeasurably. The actual creating of art must be at the core of what I am doing, because this is my livelihood after all. Many people don’t realise all of the admin and computer based tasks that being a full time artist and business owner entails – and while I will not lie, I would like to spend all my days at my easel, I still enjoy doing all of the other tasks too, even boring bookkeeping, because they are all in service to my greater vision and where I want this creative adventure to go. Most days I get up around 6am, meditate and journal, walk and/or yoga, then I sit down to create for around three hours. Then I will have a break, and come back to the computer to dive into creating blog posts, newsletters, social media content, course creation, collaborations, and colleague correspondence, packing orders, etc. Sometimes I will get a bit more easel time in later in the evening too.
How do you keep your creative practice fresh and inspired?I am so inspired by the natural world that at this point my problem is being too inspired, having too many ideas, and wanting to try and do everything right now! If I have a new idea for a class, course, or collection, I will write that in my ideas file, but I must try and maintain some focus on working on the commitments I made for this year, quarter, month, week etc. I am so in love with my practice, with the business that I am building, with learning more about my craft and myself, that I am constantly inspired, and for that I am so very grateful.
What sort of creative walls do you hit?Perfectionism is a big one, and something I am working on constantly. The other is rest – I have never been very good at giving myself down time, but the longer I do this, the more important I am finding that restorative practices are. They provide my brain with a moment to disentangle, to follow new rabbit holes, and to work my way around a problem I may have encountered. Unravelling the first, and strengthening the second, are some of my goals for this year.
What do you do to move through them?With perfectionism, if it is art related, I will put that piece away and work on something else, do some relaxed sketching, go for a walk, or meditate, and start again. I might need to have a stern conversation with myself about nothing being perfect, and perfect being boring anyway. Sometimes I might ask an art friend their input, that can be helpful, but mostly I find if I just put the piece away and come back to it later with fresh eyes I can move through the perfectionism, which is usually rooted in my own fear and vulnerability. As for rest, I have a coach, and she is really good at holding me accountable and building a relationship with rest, whatever that might look like for me on any given day. Rest can be active or inactive, and what is restorative to me may not be to you, so it is about experimenting, grounding, getting into the weeds with how I feel, what my body, heart, mind might need, where I am getting stuck. I am finding there is some entangling between perfectionism and resistance to rest, so it is deep and important work.
How has your process evolved?My work is an ever-evolving process. With each passing day, week, month, I know more, and as with anything, when you know more, when your skill grows, things that surround your practice must evolve too. Interests deepen or fall away. My values and priority have been strengthened. My focus has shifted as my process evolved, and it may happen again later too. This is not a start and finish process, being a creative. It is circuitous, it is winding and looping and full of hidden adventures. Where once I worked on a single piece or idea at a time, I am now planning a year ahead, always looking at how what I am doing can enliven and strengthen my ultimate goals and dreams.
What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your creative journey?Just how wonderful the life of an artist can be! That there is no room for ‘starving artist’ thoughts, or scarcity, that the world is filled with art at every turn of the head, and it is a huge honour to be dedicated to creating. But also, that it takes time, sometimes a lot longer than you thought it would – that goes for all aspects of a creative adventure, whether it is a hobby or a business. You may think you can finish a piece in a certain amount of time, but often the muses say differently. Not only is that ok, but if you are open to it rather than work against it, all sorts of other beauty unfurls.
Do you have a Creative Self Care Practice? I try to move a little slower in the morning, give myself time to really be in my routine, the one I mentioned before – meditation, journaling, moving my body. I do some breathwork often through the day, and make sure I get up and move often – stretching, massaging my hands etc. I light incense when I wake up, and will often put another stick or two on through the day. And tea, lots of ta and water. Before bed I try to read something that will help me develop either my business or myself, and sometimes my ruminating on that will provide fodder for my journaling the next day, or inspiration to work on further in another way. Mostly, I am trying hard to be as present to this beautiful world and life, and participate in it in the most passionate and reciprocal way I can!
Where can we find you?
www.instagram.com/natalie_eslick
www.pinterest.com/natalie_eslick
