30 days of art journalling

Art journalling day 15 - Well-being collage

I’ve been a big fan of journalling for the past year or so. As an empath, occasional overthinker and sensitive soul, I find getting my thoughts down on paper so cathartic, but I had never done art journalling. Before now.

Here’s what I learned from 30 days of art journalling.

• There are no rules and so I had no expectations of myself or what I was creating. That meant less pressure which meant more freedom.

• It got me back to enjoying the creative process. With no sense of having to paint something specific and no sketch to work from, I created whatever came to mind and it was liberating.

• With this freedom came more experimenting, especially with other mediums. I am an acrylic artist at heart (I love the bold colours) but I now have a newfound love for watercolours.

• You can spend as much or as little time as you want on it. Some days I’d be with my journal for an hour. Other times it was ten minutes.

• I realised how much I’d begun focusing on the end product instead of enjoying the process. This isn’t just true for my art, it crosses over into so much of how I approach life. I’m a goal setter and to do list maker. Art journalling reminded me to enjoy the journey too.

• I always felt calmer and more relaxed afterwards.

• I never regretted taking time out to journal.

• Some days what I created looked like something a 4 year old would paint. But if I enjoyed creating it, I didn’t care. And as a lifelong perfectionist, that is saying something.

There you have it. When I reread the above, I see a lot of freedom and that is definitely what I found through art journalling. Worrying less about how my art would turn out was so freeing.

If you want to find a simple way of being mindful, I highly recommend you get a blank journal, get your hands dirty (figuratively or literally!) and rediscover the simple joy of enjoying the creative process.