5 Tips to Inspire the Artist Inside You

I am never going to paint again, is that you? I stink; I hate this painting; I hate this sculpture; I'm giving up! ? Feeling flat and uninspired? Don't know where your next idea for art is coming from? Is the goddess of art dead? Is this you saying I am drained, I just finished a painting and feel flat and completely uninspired. Sound familiar? I cannot tell you how many times I have stepped up to an easel and decided that I could not do it, just didn't have it in me. So how to reinvent the inspiration that is indeed inside of you? Here are a few tips:

1. Books and more books on art and your specific niche or interest. Are you into stylized fashion, grim reaper or scorpion drawings, amine, landscapes or figurative work or perhaps you love landscapes, seascapes or still life. Who were or are the masters of the art you love the most? Go the the library for one. Join a book club and get some books about the art you love. Check out Amazon and seek out books on Picasso or Matisse, artists who had drive, and read about what caused their obsession. Go to your local book store, oh my goodness the sales on art books are outstanding at times. Get some coffee table books to keep out in your living room or family room to remind you and inspire you.

2. Check out You Tube! Ohh the inspiration there is phenomenal. What a glorious time we live in to have that available to us. There are You Tubes from Picasso to how to make a polymer baby dolls, as you know I am sure. Do it though, decide to educate yourself online.

3. Join your local art association and enter some shows. Oft times there will be a theme to their exhibitions and that really helps to stretch your mind. I look back on one that was all about chairs, of all things. Everyone painted or sculpted or considered chairs in some way. Nothing like a friendly competition to get the juices flowing. If your art group does not do that kind of thing, get involved and get them started to think outside the box!

4. Write about art. What is it that you love about it? What scares you about it? Share your experiences with others or write poems about your own art and the journey it took to get 'there'.

5. Go to galleries. If you don't have one in your town, then go to one online. Did you know that there are virtual tours of the Louvre online? Consider all the inspiration and sheer drive it took for some artists to meet their own edge of creativity. Everyone has dry spots, you are not alone but great artists press on.

OK.. now get to it! And enjoy the fact that wherever you are within 'your talent' that you have a special gift. The bigger gift is that you have not arrived yet, and there will always be another horizon to see within the exploration of who you are within your own quest of expression.

ABOUT Kathy Ostman-Magnusen: I am an artist, represented by Monkdogz Urban Art, New York. ORIGINAL ART may be purchased through Monkdogz: http://www.monkdogz.com/chelseagallery/artistart/M...

FREE ART GIFTS, suitable for children plus prints, giclees, cards, available on my website: http://www.kathysart.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kathy_Ostman-Magn...

IMAGE IS OF MY PAINTING "Jackie", a 18x20 oil on canvas.

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Is the Carnival Over? Is that how it feels? Like the carnival is over? It isn't! Reach then... reach beyond those feelings of self defeat and touch that part inside of you that longs to come out... then? Let it shine!

IMAGE IS "The Frog" 20x24 oil on canvas by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen (me!)

"Sometimes Life Does Not Go As Planned"

That sure man

wanting

traveling the hillside

traveling his mind

and being a god spy.

He was the kinder soul

of some I've known

who delivered all he knew

all his books

inspiration felt

from horizons

messages

of what he said were divine

revealed to him.

Who can say

no one has the right to take

a miracle

away.

We all look for visions

hope for them

hope that we will see beyond.

Hope for understanding

higher than the sky

can sing.

Through misty eyes

we embrace the stars

sunsets

babies born

miracles of life

and try to define them.

Yet in his life of settling ideas

within his own self

the knife that cut the heart out of me

wounded him too

causing faith to be questioned

and muted.

Two people to this story

or a thousand times ten

fore who would have ever thought

that such circumstances

beyond anyone's horizon

would unravel

to such an un-redeeming end?

He cannot anger me

no not now

for he only reflected

on the other heartbeats

bleeding

then

and

if he ever understood anything at all

bleeding now

still.

He walked among them

wanting to be heard by them

clowns

spaces

yawning faces

he thought he knew something

to tell them

but oh

his eyes did not see everything

and sadly now

thinking back

maybe nothing

at all.

How lonely are the archives

of our souls now

once so well defined

and plotted out

lost between the lines

never spoken.

Other perspectives

boasted on

other eyes

seeing everything

the days just felt stormy

too bad we didn't

see the signs.

A sure of himself man

I wonder about him sometimes

if he was as broken as me

or if he ever really understood

those lost dreams

as they passed by.

Sometimes I hold my box of ribbons

reflect on all those mistakes

made

the costs and every part of ourselves

taken out

and pray over them

and my own judgment

meeting

as much

reprisal

as he

and our unsuspecting

destiny.

by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen

copyright 2013

ABOUT Kathy Ostman-Magnusen: I am an artist, represented by Monkdogz Urban Art, New York. ORIGINAL ART may be purchased through Monkdogz: http://www.monkdogz.com/chelseagallery/artistart/M...

My newest website: http://www.kathyostman-magnusen.com

THE IMAGE IS "Turquoise" 18x20 oil on canvas by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen (me!)

Do you think it takes sacrifice to create good art? Talent, are you born with it? Personally, I think that is just the beginning, that talent is desire... the rest my friend is practice and time with your self to get in touch with the root of creativity. Yes you have to apply yourself, it is not magic... magical indeed, but nothing comes without a bit of sacrifice.

Are you willing to sacrifice your time to know the talent that is inside of you? Is it something that will just take over your being? Or is talent something you have to work on?

THE IMAGE is "The Secret" 36x48 oil on canvas by Kathy Ostman-Magnusen (me)

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