Four Great Creativity (and Life) Lessons from Vincent Van Gogh

Four Great Creativity (and Life) Lessons from Vincent Van Gogh Four Great Creativity (and Life) Lessons from Vincent Van Gogh By day I run my resume business but in my spare time, Im working on developing a second career as an artist. Its notlage easy as any artist knows, but whenever I feel daunted, I think of my favourite artist of them all, Vincent Van Gogh. Many people dont realize that Van Gogh welchesnt born brilliant. He worked very hard for many years before he started to paint masterpieces, and during that time, he was fueled by sheer determination and bloody-mindedness.I was intrigued to read this Think Collective post about what can be learned from Van Goghs life and work. Its worth a read because there are some solid takeaways for anyone who has ever said Im just not talented enough or I simply dont have what it takes.And it got me thinking about the things Ive learned from Van Gogh. Here are my four favourite life/work lessons from my favourite painter.1.Just do it Did y ou know Van Gogh was considered a mediocre artist when he started out. But that he taught himself to paint by just doing it day after day after day. He once said if you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. 2. Dont be afraid of failure Ive been taking art classes recently and its amazing how many students ask the teacher whether its OK to try something. (Can I put some orange here? Can I paint with a bigger brush? Can I use acrylics on top of pastel?) His answer is always the saatkorn try it and see what happens. At first I thought he wasnt much of a teacher after all, anyone can say that But as each person blossomed and produced work far beyond what they started with, I realized he was right. The greatest block to creativity is fear of getting something wrong.Van Gogh knew there was no such thing as wrong, no such thing as a mistake there were just opportunities to try it and see what happened. 3.Work at it Van Gog h never stopped working. Once he had decided to be an artist, he took himself from mediocre student to master by sheer dint of effort. He just kept working and working and working until he got to what he wanted. In the end, he produced an average of 4 works of art a week for a decade a prodigious effort.I have a friend who is a full-time teacher and a writer. He gets up at 5am every morning even on weekends to make sure he has time to write every day. I also know a local artist who runs a busy farm by day and then spends several hours every evening in his senderaum painting. Despite a terminal illness, he rarely misses an evening.But I often meet people who tell me what they want to become once they get free of their current day job. A recent client wanted to become an interior designer, but felt trapped because of her lack of experience. It hadnt occurred to her to work weekends and evenings on designs for friends and family as a way of building a portfolio. She was simply waiti ng for someone to give her a chance.By the way, if youre lucky enough to work at your creative profession as your day job, you can still learn from Van Gogh. He used every single day to improve his craft, never letting up, never cutting himself slack. 4.Dont wait for inspiration Van Gogh didnt wait for inspiration to strike. He sat himself down every day and made himself work sketches, drawings, paintings he never stopped, saying I am always doing what I cannot do yet in order to learn how to do it. If you work in a creative profession, you know those days where nothing seems to flow. Lately Ive hit a roadblock with my painting. In the past, Ive let those roadblocks derail me and wound up not producing anything, sometimes for months, once even for years. Now Im making myself keep working even if the work Im producing isnt particularly inspired. Ive started keeping a sketchbook and its here that I try out ideas without the pressure of getting anything right. I have been drawing and painting anything a wheelbarrow in the garden, the dashboard of my car, a cup of tea, some sheep in a field near my house anything just to keep myself working until inspiration strikes again. Which it always does.In the end, its about making things happen We might not all have the talent to be Van Gogh, but how do we know if we dont put in the amount of work and study and sheer determination that he did?