A Landscape Painters Guide to Creativity – Easel Talk #63
Transcript and Key Insights
Welcome to Easel Talk #63. In this session, we dive deep into the concept of creativity, a subject that can mean different things to many people. For the sake of our discussion, let’s define it clearly: Creativity is the ability to bring something new into being by connecting seemingly unrelated elements, seeing beyond conventional patterns, and expressing one’s unique perspective in a way that resonates with others.
While “resonating with others” isn’t strictly necessary for something to be creative (you can create work no one understands or cares about, and it is still creative), leaving that element in the definition helps frame how we connect our art with an audience.
As the world evolves and we increasingly interact with machines that can perform tasks previously exclusive to humans, creativity is becoming the most valuable skill a person can possess. Personally, AI assistants are great for transcriptions or outlining ideas from my book, but they cannot make my paintings. They might generate cool images, but they lack the specific creative impetus that defines your own unique voice.
Whether you feel inherently creative or not, you can improve and enhance it. That is the goal of this guide.
The Mechanics of Resonance and Juxtaposition
When I was writing my chapter on creativity, I recalled a time living in San Jose, California, where I would walk downtown and browse bookstores there. I found a book with an M.C. Escher-style cover simply titled “Creativity.” Reading it was just okay but it got me thinking how one day I might write my own book on creativity.
The real key to creating is not to hold any one thing too firmly in your mind.
Imagine placing an “internal object” in the center of your mind, this could be elements of a landscape painting you want to make, a story, or a song. Then, bring other elements into proximity with it. You are looking for resonance or juxtaposition. If everything you add resonates perfectly and stacks up neatly, there is often a lack of creativity because it becomes too ordered. Creativity is always stimulated when an element of juxtaposition is introduced.
However, balance is key. Too much juxtaposition can cause the created object to become discordant or unappealing to other people. The creative sweet spot lies in asking yourself: How interesting is the juxtaposition? You want to hold your subject loosely and see how different elements interact. Many people struggle with this process because they fixate too concretely on the objects in their minds. You must relax and loosen up. Looseness and creativity go hand in hand; creative individuals are usually more comfortable putting things together that don’t traditionally belong.
The Role of Humor and Lightness
Humor is naturally creative because it often involves making corrections or connecting disparate things to strike people as funny. The more disparate the connections, the more effective the humor (and by extension, the creativity) can be. This implies a state of looseness: you are looking for opportunities to have fun.
Your creativity should generally be tied to fun, not despair, negativity, or depression. Those emotions tend to stomp on creativity and destroy it. Bringing an attitude of humor and lightness to your work is optimal. In landscape painting, this translates to a mindset of experimentation: “Hey, maybe I’ll try this today.” If it fails, you can simply strike the idea off the list. You’ve learned what doesn’t work, which is valuable data. Enhancing creativity is often about trying things out, seeing how they operate, and learning from the process without the added weight of perfectionism.
Protecting Your Unique Sensibility
A crucial component of creativity is protecting your unique sensibility. You are a one-of-a-kind individual; there will never be anyone else in the universe exactly like you. While we share common human traits (eating, sleeping, loving), your perspective is 100% unique and must be respected.
In an era of information overload, social media, the internet, endless content, it is vital to make time for your own work. Some argue that watching other creators sparks inspiration, and within reason, that’s true. However, consuming too much input can obfuscate your own internal sense of what is good or bad. If you spend all day scrolling through painting Facebook groups or watching video after video, you risk losing focus on your own aesthetic voice.
Your aesthetic sense is a unique amalgam of your physical body, cultural background, education, personal preferences, and intelligence making you one of a kind so everything you do is unique. Even an “ugly” or “bad” painting you create is intrinsically unique to you.
When you look at great work and feel a resonance, that is the greatness within you. Take that seed and push it until you can create something masterful yourself.
Another definition of creativity is seeing things in ways others don’t. Develop that ability, and people will eventually recognize the uniqueness of your work.
Negative Thinking vs. Creative Flow
Negative thinking is the antithesis of creativity. Thoughts like “I suck,” or “That person paints rocks/trees/color better than I do” are bummer energy. Do not dwell on them. Instead, focus on bringing unlike things together.
This brings us to a valuable resource for landscape painters: the Stapleton Kearns blog. Stapleton was incredibly influential in my early days as a painter. He spent a long period on his blog discussing every aspect of painting with master-level insight.
One memorable post I recall asked if a landscape painting would be better if it were painted including a “flaming phone booth.” Obviously, the answer is probably not (or at least, it wouldn’t improve the painting), but the concept highlights creativity and the idea that creativity for it’s own sake isn’t necessary to create a great painting.
In landscape painting, creativity is mostly applied through composition. However, you have thousands of additional opportunities to express yourself creatively in every painting. Starting with asking: Should these forms relate to each other, or can I put something in juxtaposition? Meaning, you don’t just slavishly copy your reference photo. That is not creative. Creativity is taking inspiration from the reference and creating you own painting.
The Attitude of Play and “Your Way”
To maintain this flow, you need an attitude of play. Ask yourself: “What’s something I really haven’t done before here?” or “How can I get these two elements of the landscape to get along?” Maybe make one taller, move them closer, change the color palette etc. These are core creative decisions.
If something you tried doesn’t work, that’s okay. You have plenty of boards. Throw the painting away, and file the experience in your mental drawer of “things that don’t work,” and move on. Negativity is the enemy; playfulness is creativity’s ally.
A super crucial insight to remember: Your way is the point. People often worry about being unique, but you are already unique. You just need to develop your craft until others can recognize it. As I was reminded by a musician named MG The Future many years ago, everything you do has your unique stamp on it; you cannot escape it. Developing your craft allows you to express that unique internal vision more effectively and efficiently. So, know it, own it.
The Success Trap: Creating for a Living
While creativity is life-affirming, always moving forward, and full of thrills, making a living as a creative professional introduces specific traps. I have seen this in the music industry and possible in fine arts as well.
Consider my favorite metaphor the Boat Painting Analogy: Imagine you are a painter who mostly paints landscapes. One day, you paint a boat (which you don’t particularly enjoy painting). You put it in your studio gallery, and someone buys it for $5,000, that’s the price you put on it because you just didn’t care and thought it would be funny.
Since you like money, you decide to paint another boat, then another, until one day you’re on the cover of Boat Painter Magazine, and the interviewer says ‘you must love painting boats!’ Thats when you tell them “well, actually I prefer painting landscapes” admitting you actually wish you were doing something else but ended up here because that’s what the marketplace rewarded you for.
This is the Success Trap. When you apply 100% of your work to the marketplace, your mindset shifts from “This will be cool/fun” to “That other thing was popular, so I’ll make a variation.” That isn’t creative; it’s a commercial calculation.
A historical example I like to use is Peter Frampton and his album Frampton Comes Alive. After ten years of writing great songs that didn’t initially become hits, the live album captured all that accumulated work and talent at the perfect moment in time and was huge.
The corporate music label then demanded an immediate follow-up. Without another decade to build new material, Peter rushed out a record that was largely dross because it lacked the actual creative impetus required for true greatness.
Finding Your Balance
If you want to be a successful landscape painter (or any other type of artist), you must strike a balance. You need to know what people like while maintaining your internal creative impetus. For me, living in Northland, New Zealand, the marketplace mostly wants coastal scenes. But I often choose to paint forest paths with trails and light because that is what I find cool and feel inspired by. That is respecting the artist within.
You can do this more elegantly than I do, but you must watch out for these creativity traps, especially when starting out. If you get one compliment on a specific style or painting approach, don’t let attention or money automatically dictate your next bunch of paintings. Care for your art and creativity over popularity must be your North Star.
Artists who succeed, fall, and rise again do so because they ultimately cared more about their art than their financial success. I feel lucky that my current level of success allows me to pursue what is appropriate for me as an artist while still having a good life. The work is turning out well, which is the most important metric.
Final Thoughts and Book Announcement
The things that make you a better painter are larger than just landscape painting; they are your attitudes toward making things and approaching life itself.
Keep a loose approach, stay positive, and remember that creativity thrives in lightness and fun, not in the darkness of negativity.
Finally, I’d like to remind you about my book, 13 Years of Accumulated Painting Knowledge. It’s a comprehensive guide on how to work in a Tonalist way, available for $65 USD with international shipping included.
Additionally, these talks are derived from a new book I am currently finishing up, proofreading and preparing for publication. It is an expansive collection of essays about every aspect of landscape painting. I plan to release it as an ebook first, but the real goal is a lavishly illustrated print format featuring my paintings. Stay tuned for updates on that project.
Thank you for joining me today. See you in the next Easel Talk or painting session!
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