The art inspo tip that can bring you a joy-filled life....

Is that heading a bit much? A bit of a reach?

Hear me out.

As you may have noticed, my schtick is "find the beauty in the small, often overlooked things..." I paint dead leaves. I take the time to paint the tiny details at the centre of a flower which make it unique. I paint fallen tree bark if I think the texture is interesting! Lately, I've taken it a step further with painting the 'little' things. I'm hunting for subjects to paint that fit on pieces of paper even as small as 5x5cm! It's a super cute and fun project and has new challenges for me too.

For example, I'm trying to paint my subjects at life size as much as possible (as opposed to shrinking down their size to fit the paper). It is a little more difficult to find something quite that tiny that is still a beautiful form, an eye-catching colour, able to be arranged in a pleasing composition or preferably all of the above at once. But I'm doing it and I still have LOTS of ideas to play with and finding more subjects all of the time.

Anyway, it got me thinking. It's winter time here in Australia. Not a lot is in bloom and, as I've just explained, I've narrowed my focus even further in my search for inspiring subjects for me to paint. I could look out into my scrubby, unmanicured bushland backyard and see the lack of colour, the grey and brown leaf litter, the dormant trees. Yet when I walk out into my garden with the single-minded goal of finding a suitable subject to paint that meets my requirements I always come back with at least a small flower or a berry, a collection of leaves, a seed pod or even an insect. What you look for, you will find.

If you look closely enough, the flowers are there to be found...

Much like the following exercise that demonstrates how your mindset can so completely affect your perception of the world around you. (You may have heard this one before. I'm not sure who first created it? Let me know if you do!)

Firstly, look around the environment you are in (your room , house, car, wherever you are...) and mentally list all of the things that you can see that are brown. Got it? Now, without taking another look, close your eyes and list everything around you that is blue.

Go.

How's the blue list? Probably not very long since you were concentrating on seeing everything around you that is brown! Again, what you look for, you will find.

It's like using confirmation bias to your advantage. If you believe that there are good, nice or happy things to find in your day you will notice the things that are there. It also works in reverse-we've all been there at least once and you don't want to get caught in that negative spiral!

If you are feeling pessimistic about your day, yourself or your life; take a walk outside and look closely at what is there. There is always something pretty or interetsing to find. And if you find one cool thing you can usually find another and then another. Maybe it's something you would like to try and paint? Or perhaps just admire. Either way, it might make you smile. And that might be another nice thing in your day.

Take care,

Lauren xx