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Next week is national Get Creative week and so whilst the library I work for is closed I’ve been preparing a few easy craft tutorials anyone can try that require materials commonly found around the home. I am going to be sharing these on the blog too, but lately I’ve been trying out some new creative pursuits during lockdown and I’ve been so pleased by the positive effect of this, the act of creating for no purpose other than the pleasure of doing it, that today I’m posting a thought piece.

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A few months ago this post would have sat in drafts unwritten. Having attended a very competitive girls school, I have carried with me a perfectionism that means I won’t share anything I’m not 95% happy with. However, something has changed in me over the last couple of weeks, and I’ve been loosening up to trying small creative tasks minus the expectation I should be good at them, and it’s been really cathartic.

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I think a lot of us fall into the bracket of thinking we can’t do art, particularly after a couple of attempts at the very illusive accuracy that some are blessed with. But like all skills, creative tasks take practice to master. I often share crafts with you with the caveat that I am not able to draw etc (G.C.S.E art was some 23 years ago). But no more. I have become positively evangelical about the therapeutic qualities of art during lockdown.

What started as taking family drawing classes with children’s illustrator Ed Vere (so much fun), developed into hours spent on activities that absorbed us during afternoon downtime and put us all in a good mood. One particularly fun afternoon spent with some Star Wars colouring sheets, some cotton buds, and a children’s paint palette, resulted in Lichtenstein-style dot pictures that we were all pleased with. And it got me wondering why I don’t make time for creative pursuits without a purpose.

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By chance as this thought was developing I happened across an online art class with Kate Hiley recommended by my interiors friend Cate St Hill. Set up as a one hour live tutorial on Instagram (with proceeds from donations going to the NHS) I wiled away a lovely afternoon this weekend, practicing tasks to let go of control (writing your signature as many times as possible in 1 minute, 30 second drawing tasks, followed by one minute drawings, and finally shading). Kate, who will be offering more of these brilliant live classes in future, provided a really lovely space for at-home creative expression against a backdrop of classical music and looking at plants (a therapeutic act in itself). I came away with drawings that surprised me by looking a little like actual plants, leaves and flowers.

At almost any other point I can guarantee that I would have left it there. Assumed that beginners luck had been involved and not dare to disappoint myself by trying again. However, despite knowing that my pictures were all pretty basic and not the most accomplished, something made me continue. I framed scraps of my favourite drawings and propped them up in the bedroom, not as a forever piece, but as a totem to remind me to continue being creative.

A sample of leaves from the garden which I used for drawing practice.

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Yesterday I started some shade drawings with art pencils (you can obviously draw with anything, I started with a sharpie and one of Ted’s writing pencils). And it was a really therapeutic 90 minute break from what had been a slightly fraught home schooling morning.

I wonder how many of you have blocks to creativity, maybe like me you had an art teacher in your first year of secondary school who would rub out your work and redraw what they weren’t happy with, this always felt like a massive afront to me (and something which anecdotally seems to happen to at least a third of us). Looking back on where my blocks are, it’s being told my work wasn’t good enough, which probably spurs some people on but made me give up. When I think back to the day before my art GCSE when I went to the lightroom to commit my screenprint, the art teacher supervising looked at my final project and told me it was far too linear, which was in fact the point of it. I have written this in my head that whilst I have a creative instinct I don’t have the practical acumen so should avoid these tasks. However, it occurs to me as I write this that I got an A* for Art and that opinion is always subjective, both the art teachers and the examiner. But perhaps because we commit something more of ourselves to art, it feels a far more vulnerable space and it’s easy to be put off. What I think I’m trying to say is that other people’s judgement of your creative endeavours doesn’t matter. I was pleased with what I drew, but also more than that I really enjoyed the process. It took me out of myself, it relaxed me, observing leaves for hours was akin to mindfulness in its effect.

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Painted leaf, looking at the silhouette structures of nature.

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So, if like me you have always thought that your drawing abilities were little more than an embarrassment, pick up a pencil, put on some relaxing music (I love Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Miles Davis Kind Of Blue or Mingus), and see where it takes you. I highly recommend the quick tasks mentioned above to loosen you up, including looking at your still life for a full minute paying attention to where light and shade hit before you begin. If you are looking for visual motivation I highly recommend Dr James Fox’s twitter feed highlighting a different work of art relevant to the times during each day of quarantine, the BBC series filmed during lockdown giving guided tours of closed museums and galleries. For things to get involved with, there’s the wonderful Grayson Perry’s Art Club (currently running, and available on All4 catch up), and one I haven’t tried yet but will do, British ceramicist Clare Twomey‘s ‘Get Creative at Home Masterclasses.  

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Vase of leaves for inspiration in the bedroom.

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I have also been dipping in and out of Alain de Botton’s book Art as Therapy this week, not so much a guide on how to make art for therapeutic value but how works of art provide insight. For me, living a busy life in an urban environment, drawing nature is very cathartic and has helped to centre me, perhaps for you it will be something more vibrant and uplifting. If you are processing background anxiety (I’m sure we all are at the moment) give it a go, id love to hear how you got on in the comments below.

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