Be stubborn about your goals and flexible about your methods”. (Source)

I had to remind myself again this week why I’m doing this project when all the odds feel stacked against me. By odds I don’t mean anything dramatic, simply the fact that time and creative space aren’t always on my side. Time because I’m a full time Mum to our fourteen month old toddler and space because quite frankly I don’t have much. As I’ve mentioned before I don’t have an art studio or spare room. I have the dining room table (when it’s not in use) and a lovely open outdoor area. The outdoor area is great but unfortunately the time I get to work is mainly in the evenings and I don’t want to sit outside in bad lighting, with the mozzies.

I’m sure these all sound like excuses and perhaps when I’m tired and have no creative energy it feels that way. Honestly though, it really does make being creative challenging at times. When I do get that creative urge and find myself with a spare ten minutes I generally need that time to set up my materials and because I have a little one with minimal space, I then have to pack them up too. My creative energy dissipates before I even get started…poof! So as much as I want to get out my paints and make a beautiful creative mess, it just doesn’t work . Therefore I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that right now I’m going to have to compromise to reach my artistic goal each week.

I will simply need to choose artistic projects that are uncomplicated, less messy and that I can work on in small spaces of time (unless I miraculously have extra time on my hands that is). And that is exactly what I’ve done this week. I’d started out with a big plan but time and circumstances didn’t allow it… it was going to be a fun, messy one. So while berating myself in the shower this evening; having had no completed art project, I suddenly had a moment of motivation. Each week I seek out motivational quotes to start my post and inspire others. So I decided to share my own words of motivation with you all too. I was inspired by the amazing quotes and designs on my pinterest wall. I didn’t have time to create the design myself so found a free vector artwork on Freepik along with the Typography on dafont.com by Yusril Muhtadi. The words are my own and I just put it all together in Adobe Illustrator.

I hope they inspire you. Until next week…happy painting!

Do you relate to not having a creative space? I’d love to hear about any methods you have when working with minimal space.