3 Ways to Jump Start Your Creativity

Today, I have Patricia Corbett who is a prolific oil painter whose work has been very well received by collectors on the blog.  Patricia is also an accomplished opera singer who has traveled the world singing in many theaters.

After I’d watched an interview of Patricia, I thought to myself, what a multi-creative person!  I knew she’d have some words of wisdom for all of us creative people, so I contacted her for an interview about how to jump start your creativity. And guess what, she graciously agreed.

I met with Patricia and her husband Gil on a beautiful August afternoon in their home. Patricia has a large gallery showcasing her paintings – Camelot Art Gallery. Above which she has an attic studio, where she paints.

If you’re secretly wishing you could also be creative but have concluded that you can’t do this stuff or you have started on a path of creativity but find yourself not making progress; then here are three things from Patricia to help you jump start your creativity.

1. Study the Masters

You need a foundation on which to build. Study those who have been successful in doing the same thing you’re doing (the masters). Patricia puts it this way.

“The masters have the keys to the techniques. You can do it the hard way if you want to, but you have to glean from the past. I used to listen to the recordings of all the old opera singers.”

2. Practice:

When it comes to practice, Patricia says “practice, practice, practice!” This year, she got herself 350 pieces of board to practice on.  “That’s a lot of pieces”, I said.  But she says that’s o.k. because it wasn’t until the 50^th painting, did she start to learn a significant lesson.

“It’s great to just create and feel good about it. Who cares if it’s not the way you wanted it or if people like it or not. Enjoy the process! I think you have to practice a lot, though.  You can’t do it once a week or once a month.  You’ve got to do it two or three times a week.”

Patricia continues by telling a story about her college years.  There was a girl in her class who had a natural talent for singing and she’d go out to party all night and yet walk on stage the next morning and win all the competitions.  In her fourth year of college, Patricia started beating her in the competitions because Patricia had kept practicing.

In this statement, Patricia has highlighted one of the most important pillars of creativity, that is CONSISTENCY.

3. Take Lessons:

And here’s another statement by Patricia Corbett.

“When you’re starting out there are a lot of things that you don’t know you don’t know.  Like your eyes are not developed well enough for really seeing and your ears are not developed to hear what you need to hear to make you an expert.”

So what do you do about that, I asked. Patricia’s advice is to take lessons.  However, she has a word of caution about running from one workshop or class to another.  She insists that you need not forget point number 2 – PRACTICE. You need to take time off workshops and learning to put what you’ve learned into practice!

So here it is: how to jump start your creativity.  Look out for the second part in which we talk about how to Grow As A Creative Person.

As always, I love to hear what you’ve got to say. Meet you in the comments section below.

Warmest regards,

 

 

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