10th February 2026

The start of 2026 has been a quiet one. You often find yourself getting so caught up in the buzz of December, once January rears its head suddenly you crash. January was a difficult month, but we made it out the other side.

Long dark days, creative block, health problems, exterior pressures all build up into one impending blockade that feels impossible to overcome, and for a while I couldn’t overcome it. So instead I just sat, and let myself process that. It was difficult, the guilt of seeing others accelerating forwards into the year whilst I remained stagnant was torture. I think as a creative with a chronic overthinking brain, it's easy to obsess over and question what is wrong with me. I see others doing so easily what felt so difficult for me to do. There must be something wrong with me, right? But the reality is that there is nothing wrong with me, I just needed time to reset, and reset I did.

Finding the spark again

I gave myself time to experiment again. I start to feel stuck when I take the fun of creating away from myself, so I needed to find that spark again. The spark that took me down the creative path in the first place. I began to fall in love with my old passions again. One of which, painting. Painting for the sake of painting; a painting just for me. I grabbed a canvas that I had bought months ago in a Hobby Craft closing sale, with the full intention of painting and not sitting in the corner untouched since like it had, and dug out some of my old trusty student grade Winsor & Newton acrylic paints, and began to paint. I didn’t need to buy the newest, fanciest, most expensive paints or brushes. Good tools help, but they don’t make the art, you do. The first thing that came to mind were tulips, blooming across the canvas with their leaves and stems intertwining. So I began, creating work for no other reason than appealing to my own eye. This gave me the time and mental space I needed to start seeing the art of creating the same way that I once did. As the image on the canvas became clearer, so did my own mind.

The progression of the tulip painting. It is clear that the decision making process was made as the piece progressed rather than through previous experiments, but that's ok for a personal piece like this. I enjoy experimenting, and changing my mind as the work flows.

One of my new year’s resolutions was to bring more colour into my life, and I want to apply that to every element. I find that my colour palette for life reflects my own mental health, so if I can incorporate brighter colours where I can, it can serve as a reminder to myself that things are good, have been good, and will be good again. Colour can find you in random springs of inspiration, and so far this year it has gone hand in hand with experimenting. My most recent endeavours of reawakening my creative spark has come from oil pastels. I would by no means call myself experienced in the medium, but the layering of thick texture and colour, combined with the feeling of the oil and pigment seeping into the skin of my hands, made my experiments most enjoyable. I have always secretly loved getting messy when being creative. It probably stems from my childhood days of scribbling on walls with wax crayons (much to my Mum's dismay), or covering myself head to toe in glitter and other craft supplies. Or in secondary school, there was something about getting paint on my school blazer, knowing it would never wash out, that made me love being an artist, and I think I still carry that feeling with me to this day. The joy in creating a mess for something beautiful is something that I hope I carry with me for the rest of time.

Two quick pieces using oil pastels. I didn't allow my perfectionist side time to hyper-obsess over the minute details, creating looser and more expressive flowers. I really enjoyed the layering of the pastels to create thick textures, making the flowers jump off the page.

In summary, I believe that the way to regain that spark is through reverting back to your roots. Ask yourself how you started, what was it that your younger self loved so much they would spend hours at a time doing it? Allow yourself to flow freely and create. It is too easy to allow outside influences to block your authentic approach to creation. Yes inspiration is important, but don't allow yourself to compare your creation to someone else's. Make art for you. Cater to your eye, your soul, and be mindful of what catches your attention most. Without you there would be no creation, so create for the sake of creating, and in those moments you will see that spark return again.

Until next time,

Tall Fox