I often find that the summer months from June through to the beginning of September become a slower period in my creative process. I stop creating as much finished and polished art works and tend to focus my time and energy on refilling my cup.

One of my favourite ways of doing this is reconnecting with nature. Whether it be going for my early morning walks, mushroom foraging, bird spotting, climbing mountains or just listening to the sound of the rain, this reconnection with nature helps me to reset and come back to my art process refreshed.

In the past I’ve often tried to push through this period of stillness over summer, fearing that it signified that I was in a rut or suffering from artists block. I now come to see it as more of part of my yearly cycle. As the popular saying goes “nothing in nature blooms all year.”

Going forward I’m hoping to work with my energy and inspiration cycles as a human being and as an artist. Instead of pushing against these natural fluctuations I am going to embrace them, filling my cup now with nature, introspection, play, experimentation and quiet reflection so that in the future months I have plenty of reserves to lean on when I have more energy to make “the work”.

And a quick recommendation for you, if this post resonated with you I really enjoyed THIS video by Helen Wells called “The Art of Doing Less: Why Slowness Belongs in Your Creative Practice” she describes the video as “a few creative reflections on why doing less can be enough and how some of the richest parts of the creative process happen when we stop pushing and start listening.”

I hope you are all enjoying the summer months and remember whether it be a period of stillness and reflection or energy and action for you, I hope you embrace where you are in your cycle and take this as an invitation to stop pushing and start listening.