What are you struggling with most in your art?  This is a question I asked in my Soft Pastel Facebook Group.  The response was huge!!  There were some repeating responses. 

But you know what?  I’ve struggled with all the same things in the past and present and probably will in the future too. 

I have a handy set of tools to get me through these difficult times.  I’m going to share them with you.  The first one is TIME.

 This were the common answers: 

‘I don’t have time’   AND   ‘Not enough hours in the day’

It could be true that you really don’t have time.  You are so busy with stuff that really has to come first – work and children and grandchildren and….. 

     OR it could be an excuse.

Which is it for you? 

Do you really not have enough time or are you procrastinating and avoiding?

 The thing is,  I find that I always have time to do the things

I REALLY WANT TO DO.

And if I don’t have the time, I FIND THE TIME,  I let other things go (including the housework..eek!) 

I can show you what I mean here.   (true story)

A friend of mine was always saying she didn’t have the time or the energy to paint and do her favourite crafts after the day was done and the kids were put to bed. 

And I believed her, I really did.  She was so busy, that was clear to see.  She did everything in the house and her time was zapped by the kids, her day job, the washing, the cooking, ironing, gardening, family… the list goes on. 

She had no energy at the end of the day and she wasn’t an early riser.

BUT, she wanted to resurrect her previous sewing hobby that she also hadn’t had time for.

The kids were small and little fingers and machines are not a good mix!  Now they were at school she might be able to do it again.  She dived on in and bought material and patterns – how exciting, it’s just like buying art supplies ( a hobby in itself?!) 

BUT she didn’t stop at the collecting phase she went on and made clothes, proper clothes with cuffs and collars and the most amazing themed dresses for Halloween and Christmas.  This year she’s made  28 garments.  28! 

So you see art friends,

You really do find the time for the things you really want to do and my friend proved it beautifully. 

I’m so pleased and proud of her – she is so talented! 

TALENT

=

passion (for the subject)

+

practice

And back to you….

Let me know below in the comments:

Are you REALLY SHORT ON TIME or JUST STUCK and can’t move forward because of…

OR

Is what you’re doing not inspiring enough for you to want to find the time?

TIP

If you’re not sure how to answer this question, because you just don’t know.  A little trick I learnt about 15 years ago whilst teaching is to think about the question / problem whilst gentle / slowly moving my eyes from left to right.  Not my head, just my eyes and this really helps me answer those questions and problems when I’m not sure what the answer is.