10 things to feed your art practice

As ArtLacuna brews for a) getting in to the premises (did anyone tell me how long a legal lease would take?!) and b) an art show (more to come) I've found time to delve deep into the full spectrum of artistic practice.

So, some ideas on things that may help you too with getting into the groove of your art:

1) visit some shows that will inspire and inform: my recent inspiring visits include: Plural and David Gates at Domo Baal Gallery

2) Build a relationship with your materials or materials you want a relationship with. Go get all those paints, graphite sticks, oil bars, things you've never tried and spend hours absorbed in what they do

3) Start to fill a sketchbook with some preliminary ideas for work - based on above?

4) Gather some images of works you are drawn to even if you are not entirely sure why. Pin them up where you can see them together, or in a sketchbook - make some links

5) Based on above idea write out a pecha kucha style presentation for yourself, as though you were telling others what informs your own art practice - this is what informed artlacuna's first event and as each speaker got up to present it was so diverse and interesting to see the links

6) Visit to another artist's studio. Find some-one you admire, ask if you can go visit them.

7) Read a book related to your ideas; text is inspiring for visuals. My latest book was from: www.worldofbooks.com - they help avoid 2nd hand books going to landfill

8) Think about context - where would you like you work to be seen? It doesn't have to be commercial galleries. The great outdoors inspires me and I'm currently thinking about diverse and public locations and even a mobile show (look at David Gates work above for more on this)

9) Do a piece of work outside your normal practice - see if it links or feeds back in to other ideas you've been developing

10) After having made some work, select some key pieces and gather some friends (at home? in a project space?) who can bring their work too and have a peer critique salon with drinks and nibbles. Take notes of the feedback you get and take it forth into new work. I did this on Thursday and it was most useful and inspiring, with: Katie Goodwin, Alex March, Ian Maslen, Fiona Grady, Nicki Rolls

As always, experiment - the piece above from ongoing development of ideas..........

Amelia.x