You Are Inherently Creative: This Summer, Make Art! By Wendy Welch July 17, 2024 Reading Time: 7 min ShareTweetPinShare0 SharesWhy are some people afraid to make art? Perhaps because they’re convinced they can’t. They haven’t discovered the great untold secret:Everyone can make art!Humans are born inherently creative. If you give a two-year old a piece of paper and a crayon, their natural inclination is to take the crayon and make marks on the paper. Chances are they are not going to reject the offering and say “no, I’m not an artist”. To a child making marks on a paper is as natural as eating.We love looking children’s art because it is expressive, alive and authentic. This is because they don’t have the burden of thinking they have to make “good art.” They are free to draw from how their imagination sees the world.This is why Picasso once stated: “it has taken me my whole life to learn to draw like a child.”Pablo Picasso, Carnet de la Californie: 14 plates (lithographs) Cramer BooksBe free to use your imagination as an adultAs adults we become more and more afraid of using our imagination. We believe that imagination and creativity is something to be left behind with childhood.I love the writer C.S. Lewis’ inversion of Paul’s passage in the bible about putting childish things away when you become a man. C.S. Lewis wrote:when I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.About the time children reach the pre-teen years, is when they begin to articulate they are not good at art. This usually happens when they feel unable to make an object look “realistic”.And yes, there are some individuals who have a strong ability (or better hand-eye coordination) to make a thing look recognizable or how it might appear in a photograph. Children quickly divide themselves into the group that can draw a horse (or dog, or car, or person) and those who can’t.Anyone can learn to draw realisticallyThe truth is anyone can learn to draw realistically—if they are willing to devote the time to learn that skill.It’s not something that just appears by magic. It takes time and concentration, but most people can learn to draw. It’s very much like the way anybody can learn to ride a bike or drive a car. There are a set of specific skills that you can train yourself to do. It is not about talent or being gifted.Anyone who is willing to put the time in, can learn to draw. It might not be a perfect drawing. But it will be their way of drawing. And that is more special than people realize.But art is more than making something look like a photographThe important thing to understand is that being creative or making art is much more than being able to make something look like a photograph. One reason to make art is to find out the way you might draw a horse or dog and how it will be different from the way everyone else does it.Be curious to find out what your way of making art will beEveryone has their own style of drawing even if they have never drawn before.Your way of drawing is similar to your signature. Everyone has a a way of signing their name that is unique to them. And this applies to drawing as well.Making art is good for you!Some of you might have heard through various medical reports, that making art is good for you.It’s good for your mental health, your sense of well-being and it makes you look at the world in entirely different way.So maybe it’s time to think that even if you’re not good at art, art is good for you, so that is reason enough to make art part of your life.And there will always be reasons not to get started…A couple of the big reasons people why people think they can’t make art include: they don’t have enough time or they don’t know what to make.So I developed a workshop called Making Art a Practice that consists of several short creative exercises that include drawing, painting and collage. The purpose of these exercises is to give you tools to use whenever you feel like doing something creative, but don’t know where to begin.This workshop is designed to help you make art a regular part of your life instead of procrastinating over exploring your creativity. You don’t need to think about whether or not you are “good enough” to be an artist—the only way you can be good at art is to take the first step and do something.For this article I’m sharing some simple exercises you could get started with, as well as sharing real-life examples from famous artists.Art can take many, many forms. It’s good for you. You ARE creative.Here are 6 simple art exercises you could get started with inspired by famous artists:1) ScribblingCy Twombly, Leda and the Swan, 1962Most people’s first drawing experience starts with scribbling.Often when I give an exercise based on scribbling, people are perplexed. Why would an adult “scribble”?One of the reasons is to get back to that uninhibited stage of the first drawings you ever made. This drawing by Cy Twombly might look like something a child would do, but upon closer examination you can observe that these marks, while looking spontaneous, are actually made with much thought and deliberation. These works were made over a long period, with plenty of time for sitting and staring between sessions of mark making.Twombly’s desire was to make work that combines two important concepts that give strength to almost any work of art: spontaneity and deliberation, the subconscious and the conscious.2) Drawing PlantsEllsworth Kelly, Briar, 1961, ink on paper, 22″ x 28″Ellsworth Kelly was an abstract painter who drew plants almost every day of his life.He loved the way this kind of drawing helped keep his focus and attention to the connection of the eye and the hand. Many of the plant forms appeared as abstract shaped paintings in Kelly’s practice.Drawing plants is a wonderful experience because it makes you stop and notice the marvels of nature. Even if your drawing does not turn out as perfect as you want, the time is not wasted because it has been spent studying forms in nature and this is the kind of situation that really makes you feel alive.3) Landscape SketchingJ.M.W. Turner, Coastal Terrain, ca. 1830–1845. Watercolor on paper, 221 x 271 mmAt first glance you might not think the above watercolour sketch is made by a world-famous artist. Yet J.M.W Turner did these quick watercolour sketches all his life.They were done solely for himself and never meant to be exhibited. He used these sketches to get a feeling for the sea and sky. Turner’s work was very radical for his time because he made expression more important than representation.And it’s often harder to do less than more. I love quoting Mark Twain who apologized to a friend for writing him such a long letter. He said “I’m sorry, I didn’t have time to write a short one.”It takes a certain kind of bravery to capture a scene with just a few strokes.4) Get inspired by MatisseJonas Wood, Matisse Pot 4, 2019, 18-colour screen print on Rising Museum Board, 34 × 32 in, Edition of 50Another great way to get inspired is to look at the work of other aritsts.Henri Matisse is an artist who has captured the imagination of many artists and continues to do so to this day. The American artist, Jonas Woods, plays with pattern in all of his paintings very much the way Matisse did.Wood also did a series of silkscreens on paper called “Matisses’ Pots,” where he took directly from Matisse’s compositions and contained the image in the shape of a pot.Matisse has not only inspired other artists such as Richard Diebenkorn or Beatriz Milhazes, he has also influenced many fashion designs.5) Photo Montage (Collage with Photos)Max Ernst, Above the Clouds, 1921, photomontageAnother way to get inspriration for an artwork is by combining found images to create new compositions.This is a great thing to do if you’re stuck because it doesn’t involve coming up with the original idea beforehand. You just cut out a variety of images and then combine them together to create something new.Max Ernst was a prolific artist who loved to combine unexpected images to create a new meaning. He was influenced by Surrealist ideas that involved tapping into the subconscious and the dreamworld. By creating compositions made with otherworldly combinations of images, the viewer is compelled to invent their own meaning about what they see. Ernst’s works were made to awaken the viewer’s imagination.6) Assemblage (3D Collage)Richard Tuttle, Pressing: Hole in the Head, VII 2015–2016. Styrofoam, metal, colored felt, heat-sensitive quilting backing, fabric paint, white glue, bond paper, enamel paint, acid-free museum mount board, metallic paper, acrylic, day-glo gouache, nails 64.8 x 92.1 x 5.1 cm, 25 1/2 x 36 1/4 x 2 1/8 ins.One of may favourite artists is Richard Tuttle. A big part of my attraction to his work has to do with his ability to combine materials with a sense of play and how his compositions seem casual, but are very specific and thought out.The work above, Pressing: Hole in the Head, might seem thrown together, but like Twombly, Tuttle is very thoughtful and deliberate.If you read the list of materials used in this work you will see that everything is very specific, even his choice of what he uses. There is an elegance to the simplicity of these everyday materials.The work looks ad hoc and yet also very well-designed. Because we don’t quite understand the work, it forces us to engage further and wonder what was the artist thinking when making this?Tuttle relies on “the intelligence of the hands,” meaning that he is a very tactile-oriented person and he uses his sense of touch as well as sight to guide him in his composition choices.Wrap-upSo what art might you get creating?Emma-Louise here. I hope you found that interesting and inspiring. And if you live in Canada in the Victoria, BC area or on Vancouver Island, I recommend signing up for the Vancouver Island School of Art newsletter here and taking an evening, weekend or day class—and just getting started! If not, what local art, community colleges and art groups exist near you? What classes are available? There are so many options, so why not choose a course that appeals to you—and get started making art!Contributing Author: Wendy Welch is is a Victoria, BC, Canada-based artist and the Executive Director and founder of the Vancouver Island School of Art,, a private post-secondary accredited art school. She has a MFA from the University of Victoria and a BFA from Concordia University in Montreal. Wendy’s art practice includes drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, art writing and curatorial work. Wendy has exhibited both solo and in group exhibitions. She wrote weekly art columns for a local publication (Monday Magazine) from 2000-2007, and has had writing published in Canadian Art Magazine and Border Crossings. She has also written essays for several artist catalogues. Wendy has also taught at the Victoria College of Art, the University of Victoria and Camosun College.You can also see Wendy’s own art here >>If you liked this article, you may also like:10 Beautiful Reasons Why You Need Solitude! (A Core Fierce Kindness Practice)7 Easily Doable Ways to Feel Happier and Find Calm through Nature & Connection!How to Create a Vision Board for your Life, Career and More!Image of Happy Smiling adult sitting at desk with paints and laptop by Kraken ImagesImage of Various famous artist images by supplied by Wendy WelchShareTweetPinShare0 SharesLeave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.