Creating to reflect

I recently had the unexpected gift of four days on my own to think and create. This creative exercise is one I often use in different forms to connect to a place and find inspiration. Perhaps this resonates with you, and if it does I would like to invite you to try it!

I came here feeling disconnected. The last three months have been dominated by moving: renovating, packing and settling into a new house. I knew I wanted to spend a portion of my time here exploring the medium of watercolour and embroidery, but I didn't really know where to start and felt stuck and uninspired. I want to take you along through my process of unlocking inspiration and hope it inspires you!

First step: give yourself space to just be, take the pressure off and arrive, and then start to observe what draws your attention.

Second step: Take your camera and go for a walk. The beginning of January on an overcast day might not seem like the most inspiring, but I soon found myself drawn to the line of a piece of grass, the texture of bark and the direction of light and reflection in water droplets. Give your body and mind space to absorb what you see without rushing into creating mode. Using the camera helps me to focus on what I see.

Third step: I used watercolour paints and paper to start experimenting with colours, trying out different brushstrokes and using my first page to simply try different strokes. At this point I made a painting that felt more like a warm-up exercise, I like the colours but it didn't feel like what I was trying to express, and at this point I didn't really know what I wanted to express, it was still the warmup.

Fourth step: The next day I headed out with the camera again, this time choosing a time when the late afternoon light was seeping through the empty branches. In essence this is the same as step 2, but by now I had arrived a bit more and felt like there was more room in my head. I was happier with my photos but again simply walked and looked for colours, textures and light that caught my eye. 

While I was hopping over a ditch to kneel down and photograph some water droplets the spark of inspiration I had been waiting for finally hit me. This place held meaning for me, I felt a long-rooted connection with the actual ground I hadn’t felt in a very long time. During our 2 hour drive east the day before, my sister and I had driven through different towns and villages we had either visited or lived in as children. Our mother grew up not far from here, and this region of The Netherlands, the Achterhoek, was one of the places our family lived in for one of the many short stays we had in The Netherlands over the years. I felt like the ditch I had jumped over, the place I was standing, held something I had been missing. I grew up in Papua New Guinea and that feels about as far away as one can be from where I am now. The memories of places in Canada, Germany, The Netherlands and England that I process in many of my designs feel more like places I have known as an adult. And yet, for one short moment, I felt the connection reaching back as I stood there next to that ditch. A place I remembered feeling particularly safe and cocooned, tucked away as a child, one of those moves after a big goodbye where its not quite a holiday, but not also not a home where you settle.

That spark of insight, feeling and connection was what I needed for the next step in creating. I hadn’t really worked out the thought, and I could of course now reach further and reflect more deeply on that connection, but I have shared this to show you how you can take a thought and spin it further, leave it to sit at the back of your head and draw from it to feed a creative idea.

Fifth step: I took a hydrangea flowerhead I found lying on the ground and brought it back to my desk where I started the next step. This time I had a reference photo, taken on my walk of that same hydrangea, and I started sketching. I had a clear idea that I just went with.

Sixth step: At this point you can create in whatever medium you feel comfortable in, but if you want to try something similar to what I made, here are some tips: Start with a colour pallete, thinking through the colours that you saw and inspired you and use a scrap paper to see how the paint looks on paper, I narrowed my pallete down and mixed a few paint colours until I was happy. I started with a very loose sketch of my hydrangea flower head using a masking marker so that those lines would stay white when I painted over them. Then combine large strokes of colour on the page, letting the colours flow. I worked in a few layers, letting the paint dry before adding more. After rubbing off the masking fluid I added more layers of paint. This part is where you can just experiment with the way the paint flows. Take your time, because water colour will soon get muddy, and experiment. Always remember that to create something the way you see it in your head you do need to practice! So be gentle on yourself if it doesn’t turn out how you wanted right away.

Seventh step: On a different piece of paper, paint smaller shapes and cut them out when dried. I painted little flowers but you could also cut out squares or circles or strips of paper. Then using an awl or a needle, poke holes into the paper and sew them onto the larger paper. This adds another dimension of depth and texture to your finished piece.

If you try this I would love to see how it turns out! Use it as a creative exercise when you feel stuck or uninspired.