How to Plan for a Creative Holiday
On pretty much every holiday over the past several years, I have taken along my good intentions to sketch or paint and have optimistically packed a hodgepodge of art materials. I have invariably returned home with several Ziplocks full of unused supplies that I have unpacked with a vague sense of disappointment.
Despite this history, I was once again optimistic as our trip to Spain’s Catalan Pyrenees (a “near” vacation given that we live in Barcelona) approached. I knew that, in theory, I would have time for art because my daughter would be working in the late afternoons. But how to translate intention into action?
Getting away from it all in the Aigüestortes i Estany de Sant Maurici National Park.
Holidays, for me, are about physically getting away but also very much about mentally getting away – specifically getting away from obligations and decision making. I don’t want to spend a lot of mental energy deciding what to do and motivating myself. I want things to be restorative and fun. It dawned on me that this is as true of holiday art making as it is of other holiday activities. I realized that one stumbling block to realizing my vision of idyllic afternoons in nature with sketchbook in hand was simply the lack of a plan.
You might work en plein air regularly and not have this problem. I, on the other hand, normally work in the studio and I have not focused much on landscapes. If I wanted to return from the mountains having taken advantage of lazy afternoons full of art potential, then I needed to go with more than good intentions and the hope of spontaneous art making. I needed to go armed with simple and fun ideas that wouldn’t involve much preparation or decision making.
For me, inspiration and direction came from Gillian Lee Smith’s online course called Gathering the Landscape, which is not so much a “how to” as a feast of ideas and demonstrations. In the week before we headed out, I watched a couple of Gillian’s videos for ideas on how to approach working outdoors and I packed up a set of limited and simple art materials. I wanted to be sure that I’d have the materials that I needed but I also didn’t want to overload myself with options (one goal, after all, was to keep decision making to a minimum).
I used simple materials - mostly pencil and charcoal - to capture some of the scenes in and around the little village in which we we stayed. I was particularly drawn to the places where natural and built elements commingle.
This is what I ended up packing:
• Pencils and a knife with which to sharpen them
• Several erasers of different sizes
• Two sketchbooks
• Drawing board
• Variety of vine and compressed charcoal
• Several little bottles of acrylic ink (my one nod to “just in case” supplies)
• Some ideas for how to work
• Low expectations
On one hot afternoon, I was inspired to sit in the shade, get out my bottle of acrylic ink, and work more abstractly.
I didn’t sketch every day – some of our mountain hikes were intense enough that by the time we returned in the afternoon I was too tired to do much besides read and sip something – but I did get out multiple times. For me, this felt like a huge success! It helped that we were in a tiny picturesque village on the slope of a mountain, but even the less exciting scenery held something of interest once I started looking. Most importantly, I had fun, got a little more comfortable working with landscapes, and returned home restored and satisfied.
What are your favorite ways of art making (or otherwise working creatively) on holiday? Or do you prefer to take a complete break and recharge your creative batteries?
