Creative Explorations Vol #17: Studio visit with artist Shui-Lyn White
A sketchbook/art journal prompt to support your art and creative practice.
Before we get into this month’s prompt, I have a very exciting invitation for you!
The FREE Make Create Express Creative Retreat sessions are back!
If you were unable to take part in the Creative Retreat Weekend in July, or weren’t able to complete all the lessons that you wanted to, I have excellent news for you. The free creative retreat sessions are back, and this time, you have MORE time to watch them!
The replay will run over 2 weeks (18 Nov to 2 Dec), and will be overflowing with inspiration, creativity and community. You really wouldn't want to miss it! It’s an excellent way to renew or kick start your creative journey in readiness for 2025, with an abundance of inspiration and community.
Note: If you signed up for the Creative Retreat weekend in July, you will find the replay in your dashboard. Just keep an eye on your emails and save the date!
My lesson is called Wild Soul and I loved creating it for you! Think yummy layers, luscious colors, and playful, intuitive fun! It will go live on 26 November.
Here’s a little sneak peek at what we will create:
And if you want to keep your creative well primed, you can still join us for the year long adventure, Make Create Express. My lesson, Imagined Landscapes, dropped a few weeks ago, and I LOVED all the art that flowed from it and all the lovely feedback from the participants.
You will have forever access to the lessons, and can do them at your own pace. To learn more or to register click HERE.
I hope to see you in the classroom!
And now, on to this month’s prompt!
This month, we begin with an artist studio visit, and use that as a starting point for some explorations in our own art practice. You’ll find some resources and sketchbook prompts and ideas to explore below. Enjoy!
Watch: Artist studio visit with Shui-Lyn White
I think my nature has always been to work with presence, and to be very much in the present moment when I’m creating a piece. It’s just that moment. A feeling of presence, which in its own sense is a feeling of the eternal.
SHUI-LYN WHITE
We get very precious about knowledge and we get very precious about skill. And what you got is you got to actually chuck all that out…I think developing a style and knowledge…it starts to become a limiting factor because it stops being about who you are now and about what you’ve learnt, which as you notice is already past tense. And it’s very important for me…the present tense is very important, ‘cause that’s kind of where we’re at.
SHUI-LYN WHITE
Those two statements above — GOLD!
Being present with the work we are creating NOW, being in the moment of creation, is the most important skill of the artist. And it’s the most difficult one to master. We often compare our work with previous work, with the work of others, with an imaginary critic who will dissect everything we do and rip our piece to shreds.
More often than not, those are just our own insecurities and fears that trip us up and prevent us from just being with our art and seeing where it wants to go.
We often think we need to find our stye, our niche. But our tastes, our preferences, are constantly evolving. Why would you want to chain yourself to one thing, one style, when you could experiment, flow with your interests, and go where your curiosity takes you?
When you do that, your “style” as it were {which is just an amalgamation of the colors you love, the way you move your brush, the kinds of marks you love}, shows up anyway!
Let’s pull at a few threads from Shu-Lyn White in our journals and sketchbooks this month.
Ideas + suggestions
Play with gestures: Gestural line work and gestural painting add a lot of movement and emotion to a piece. Try experimenting with gesture this month. Take a big piece of paper, some mark making tools, inks, and paints. Then use gesture to express different emotions; see what kinds of marks you come up with. You can tear up the paper and use it as collage; use it as inspiration for adding more gestural work to your pieces, or develop it further into a painting.
Lighten up: One of the things Shu-Lyn says is to work on your art for fun. Forget about expectations, about what others will say, if they will understand your art, if it will be good, if it will garner “likes”. Just paint to have fun! Make a mess. Embrace the process rather than focusing on the final outcome.
Be less precious about your art: Experiment with wrecking your pages. Burn them {but safety first, please!}; dunk them in a coffee or tea bath; add some rust to your pieces; tear out parts of pages; rip up some collage. See what happens. There’s immense beauty to be found in the grunge!
Draw inspiration from music and poetry: There are many ways to incorporate music and/or poetry into your art. You can immerse yourself in music and paint intuitively; add lines of poetry or lyrics into your work. I’ve shared pages from my art journals exploring Mary Oliver’s poem To Begin With, The Sweet Grass; and some pages inspired by
’s beautiful music, here.Dive deeper: If you enjoyed the Studio Visit with Shu-Lyn, grab a cup of coffee and read this interview with the artist.
I look forward to seeing your take on this prompt! You can email your finished pieces to me on shinjinim@substack.com or share them on Notes if you use the Substack app. If you share on Instagram, tag me @moderngypsy.in
Like this prompt? Share it with your friends and invite them into our virtual studio. If you’re on the Substack app, you can tap on the like button or restack to Notes to let me know you enjoyed this post.