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This is episode 32 of Art Talk, and today I talk about getting out of the comfort zone.
‘Life Begins At The End Of Your Comfort Zone” – Neale Donald Walsch
Get out of your comfort zone. What does that mean for an artist? Looking around, you see many ways of expression. Figurative art, still life, landscape, portraits, and also abstract.
Honestly, I avoid two things. The first is abstract painting -it doesn’t tell me anything. I know artists deliberately chose abstraction from the beginning because they find figurative art too complex. For me, it’s the other way around. I chose figurative art. The second is acrylics. I painted a few portraits with it, and it just doesn’t fit. I did not know how quick I had to return to my oils.
Herein hides a danger, the danger of being too comfortable. I constantly challenge myself, for sure. Learn from the greatest, like I do and recently started with a good portrait artist. But as artists, we need to go a bit further sometimes. Not only honing our skills and finding challenges within brush strokes or light etc. I mean getting out of your comfort zones.
Why would I say that? Because we all sometimes get into a phase where we are stuck, where we are not happy with what we do. When we are bored out of our skulls. Doing the same over and over gets…..boring. Our growth as artists needs to do something we normally do not do. Whatever that is is always up to you. Maybe you want to put your hands into a lump of clay or take a subject you never even dared to tackle. Or how about using another painting medium or getting into coding to create generative art? I did that once. It does not work. Not my way of creating. Nevertheless, I felt invigorated by stepping out of my comfort zone.
My new challenge is, you guessed already, acrylic and abstract. Whoops, I need to try it. So, why is it important to step out of your comfort zone again? To grow! To grow on a different level, to not fall asleep and be bored by yourself, but keep yourself sharp and crisp. Because artists have a purpose in this world, it’s also to get out of your head. Get unstuck to get excited again about our favourite topic.
Art is energy, and energy can’t be made undone but transformed. We transform our subject into high-vibrating art to keep the vibration high. It is perfect to step out of what you know and do what you don’t know. Fun fact, I recently painted a portrait of a kitten. I never painted animals. But oh my, this made me so incredibly happy. This gave me high energy and high vibrations. It did something else too. As an animal lover, I found something I want to add to my skills. How could I forget that I can paint these beautiful loving creatures?
That is another aspect of getting out of your comfort zone. Finding a new topic or way you want to create that makes you vibrate high. If we do not try, we stay still. If we stay still, it’s like a puddle that starts to stink. Energy needs to move, also for us as artists. So, get out of your comfort zone:-)