How to be fearless with your art.

Okay, I told a bit of a mistruth. I don’t know how to be fearless, exactly. Fear is a part of creativity, and part of the challenge and subsequent contentment when it is overcome. But I do know how to keep fear from keeping me from trying, and it was one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned — in art, and in life.

Fear of failure, fear of exposure, fear of wasting resources, fear of embarrassment . . . once you start thinking about all the little things that keep you from putting brush to canvas, you realise just how many there are. Each time you pick up a pencil or brush, it is a little act of bravery!

But once you start listing all those little reasons, you realise how many there are. So many reasons not to try! If you tried to wait until all the risk was gone, you’d never do anything.

Creating is joy. It is delight and cosiness. It is also risk, and discomfort, and yes, fear. Learning to accept, and even embrace, that fear was when I began to really see myself grow as an artist.

I began to attempt things I knew I couldn’t do well. I jumped into painting a portrait without first agonising over sketches for days. I painted a street scene without figuring out complex perspective lines. I skipped over the stuff that made me want to give up, and did the stuff that made me truly joyful in the moment.

I asked myself, do I want to be good, or do I want to be me?

And the answer was that I wanted to be me. I wanted to discover what my painting style was. I wanted to learn who I was if I let myself make weird marks, make ugly paintings, make things that weren’t planned or carefully sketched in multiple phases.

Which is not to say that I don’t enjoy all those things too. It was just that I had spent so many years being careful, being considered, doing multiple careful and clean sketches. I never let myself do anything else, because I feared making a piece of art that wasn’t always better than my last.

Here’s the truth: not every piece of art you make will be your best. That’s fine. It’s okay. It’s more than okay, even, because we create art to enjoy creating, not to have an ever-more-polished line of products ready for sale.

I’m not a perfectionist (can you tell), so I understand that this is maybe an easier personal goal for me than it might be for others. But I really do encourage you to go be fearless.

Pick up the brush and paint something you’ve always been too cautious to try. A complex landscape, or a floral study, or a portrait, or any other thing that interests you and intimidates you in equal measure. It’s probably going to be a bit rubbish, but accept that before you even start, and don’t hesitate once you do. Just celebrate the act of attempting something you’ve always aspired to.

Honestly, you’ll probably surprise yourself. It’s amazing what we can do when we stop telling ourselves we can’t.