The Art of a New Year

Happy New Year! 🎉

With another year behind us may I take this opportunity to wish you a happy, healthy, and creative new year! 

Before the clock strikes midnight, may we reflect on the happy moments of 2023 and bring those thoughts forward as we welcome in 2024 with family, friends, and for some of us, our beloved pets! 

New Year Goals

This time of year is traditionally a time to reflect on the past year and to set new year goals or resolutions for the coming year. Goals are great but be cautious of adding too much to that list and causing overwhelm which can then have an adverse effect!

A good practice is to set priorities instead. An example would be to prioritise a regular time each week for your art. A good place to start is in the mornings when you stop for a tea or coffee break, have a sketchbook ready, and sketch or write notes or jot down ideas for drawings and paintings, this way you are scheduling creative time and encouraging that session to become a habit. The more we prioritise our art and feel comfortable with setting time aside to create, the more we will achieve.

I love to set goals and work towards achieving them. Some goals are small, easy to accomplish, and leave me with a sense of progress and achievement. The larger goals encourage me to be disciplined with time and effort and when done, are extremely rewarding. Having a deadline helps manage time and studio practice and helps keep me on track.

If goals aren't reached, I reassess their importance and some are let go and some are rescheduled and that's okay too. We need to manage the demands on ourselves, we are no use to anyone if we reach 'burn out' mode.

Share your magic!

In this busy and fast-paced world we live in, take time for yourself and your art. Share your magic with the world and don't hide it away because of misconceptions you may have.

We as creatives, can make this world a better place and it's up to us to make time to create art and shed some light in dark places by sharing our stories through drawing or painting. I cannot tell you how many times my art has made my heart sing in so many ways, countless conversations, smiles, and amazing places and events I have been to, all through my passion to create. It has made me realise how important it is to share what we love to do!

Here's to a year filled with vibrant strokes of joy, excitement, and boundless creativity!