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Varo uses the contrast of symbols to portray her opinions and desires as an artist. For Varo, the highest aspiration was achieved through a combination of colour, light, art, science and magic. There exists a harmony within these opposing forces; Varo does not simply compare and contrast, but Creation of Birds becomes a canvas for a profound... See more

I feel this pressure of “Do it, do it, do it. Time is running out. Get it done. Make it perfect.” That’s when I know that the pain is in the driver’s seat. But that’s just the natural stages we all go through.

small, mundane shifts in how you approach practice: noticing when the goal of “getting better” has quietly turned into an attempt to cancel out some fear of inadequacy; recognising the point at which useful challenge becomes a form of inner harassment; allowing a drawing to be unfinished without interpreting it as a personal shortcoming; and... See more

The middle ground — clarity without cruelty

Most artists are aware of this behaviour in themselves or in others. But what makes it all the more confusing is that the standard voices in the art world tend to fall at two unhelpful extremes. On one side, there’s the familiar rhetoric of rigour and discipline. Let’s call this ‘hard style,’ borrowing the term from martial arts, where the emphasis... See more

Many of us who love the craft discover — usually much later than is ideal — that we’ve been treating the process of learning as something closer to an audit of our inadequacy. We think we’re pursuing improvement when in fact we’re trying, quite subtly, to outrun the discomfort of feeling like a beginner.

From time to time, especially in recent years, I’ve come across artists online whose technical skills are far less central to their identity than mine has been, yet whose way of talking about their work is strikingly gentle. They seem able to describe their own progress with warmth, to make room for imperfect drawings without interpreting them as... See more

What I labelled “focus” often depended on an unspoken fear that if I relaxed even slightly, everything would slip backwards.

What I had been calling “discipline” was, in many moments, something closer to anxiety: a background sense that unless I pushed myself with sufficient intensity, I wouldn’t make progress.