Conscious Creativity by Philippa Stanton.
Philippa Stanton is a professional artist and photographer. She also has a fabulous instagram account with over 400,00 followers. Her account is a riot of colour, creativity and inspiration and a wonderful insight into her creative process. Her book Conscious Creativity is book she has put together with the aim of helping us all find our creativity. It is not so much a ‘how to’, but more of a ‘you might want to try this’ kind of a book. She firmly believes there is creativity in all of us we just sometimes need help discovering, or maybe rediscovering it.
This is a book full of colour and stunning images created by Philippa to help and inspire the reader find their own creative path. The sub title, look, connect, create is a clear summary of the substance of this book. It begins by helping the reader think about the sort of creative they are by exploring what creativity is and then posing a list of 20 questions to get you thinking about creativity. What colours, patterns and structures are important and what sparks your creativity. This is an excellent starting point as it sets the tone for the rest of the book as she delves more deeply into ways of developing creativity through sight and sound and collecting and many other things.
Each chapter explores a different part of what makes up creativity along side exercises to help you understand or develop. Lots of the exercises involve collecting or focusing on one thing. She suggests things such as going for a walk and finding just one colour to concentrate on that day, and taking photos of everything you see in that colour.
What I got from this book was a much broader perspective on what creativity is, how it can be honed and the importance of being open and conscious of everything around me as a potential trigger for creativity.
Living a Creative Life
What does it mean to live a creative life? I have thought about this on and off quite a lot recently, and Conscious Creativity has certainly helped me think about it even more. Firstly I know that for me its hugely important to feel I am being creative and to be able to do something creative most days, even if thats just taking or editing a couple of photos, or posting on Instagram. I also know that as I have gotten older and learned more about who I am, what gives me joy and what enhances my life, creativity is way up there. In fact Changing Pages was born out of a need to be creative.
When I was younger if I had been asked what creativity was I would certainly have equated it with drawing, and painting or perhaps pottery or another traditional craft. Significantly I would also have believed you had to be good at art to be creative. It has taken me a long time to realise it isn’t necessary to be able to draw to be a creative person. I enjoyed art at school but never believed I had any talent and certainly had no confidence in my ability. I vaguely recollect I got a grade E at O’level!
I loved writing stories at school, I loved cooking and baking and yet never dreamed these could make me a creative person. Of course I now understand they can. As an adult, writing has became increasingly important to me and is part of the fabric of my day to day life. I have also learned that I love taking photographs. I have always loved colour and pattern and creating images is a natural extension of this.
I have learned that we all have creativity within us. The act of finding it might seem tricky but it is without doubt there. Creatvity can of course include almost anything. Embracing creativity and seeking to develop it is a joyous thing. I rarely feel more creative than after listening to, engaging with or seeing the work of creatives. That might be via a podcast, through conversation, reading something in a book or online or visiting an art gallery or museum. Sometimes it might just be from a walk through London. In fact walking through London never fails to inspire my creativity.
My Creative Goals
This year is a significant one for me as I reach another round number. It seems important to mark the occasion and of course I will celebrate with my husband and with family and friends, but I also wanted to mark it in other ways too by setting myself some goals, particularly creative ones.
One of the things I started doing in the last year or so is watercolour painting. I have attended a couple of wonderful classes with Roxwell Press and done a little bit myself from time to time at home. Despite finding great pleasure and a calmness from engaging with paints and creating colourful images I haven’t really settled into a routine with it or developed in the way I had hoped to. To try and remedy that and to make watercolour painting a regular part of my self care I have decided this year to create 50 watercolour postcards. I of course hope at the end of the year I will be able to trace a development in my ability and see some improvement. However more importantly I want to be committed to doing something that brings me joy and creative fulfilment on a weekly basis.
So far I have painted four postcards, none of which will be winning any awards, but thats not the point. Each time I have sat down on my own in my kitchen with my paints and brushes for an hour I have found myself absorbed in the process of creating. Thinking about and absorbing colour, learning about textures and techniques and painting something has brought a sense of peacefulness and calm and an attitude of mindfulness.
Conscious Creativity has been, and I know will continue to be an important part of this process. Using some of the techniques in the book to ensure that I have an attitude of openness to what and how I will create is an exciting part of the journey.
I will share more of my journey with a paint brush over on Instagram stories throughout the year. In the mean time if you have an interest in creativity or know someone that does this book is a fabulous place to go.
