Feel Grounded With an Art Practice Using Nature Items
Get lost in the natural world, where your senses engage with everything around you, from running barefoot through the grass to squishing your toes in the sand. Nature has a unique way of connecting us to the world, it can heal and ground our chaotic minds.
Pairing nature with art can amplify those good feelings, helping you be in the present moment where you can freely play and explore.
Get outside and collect items like sticks, leaves, flowers, acorns, pinecones, grass, and more. Your collection will be unique, so your art will be unique too!
The Tactile Goodness of Nature
Give yourself a chance to stop and engage with the nature around you while you’re collecting items. Notice the wind blowing through your hair, the rustling leaves, the bird calls, and the buzzing bees. Take a deep breath and just be.
Hunt for your nature treasures with a focus on the tactile experience. See if you can find items that feel different from one another. Leaves are smooth or rough, sticks are pointy, flowers are soft, you get the idea.
The deep breathing and the use of your senses reduce your stress levels and open you up to creating in the present moment, where you can focus on the process.
The Mental Health Benefits of Nature and Creativity
Did you know that spending time in nature reduces cortisol levels? Did you know that painting reduces those levels as well? By combining these two cortisol-lowering activities of being in nature and painting, we’re able to release negative emotions and improve our mental health. (I’m not a mental health professional, I’m speaking from my own experience. Talk to a professional counselor for your mental health needs.)
I use art as a way to process my emotions, it helps me clear any mental clutter taking up space in my mind and gives me some emotional relief.
The organic shapes and loose lines that you can create with nature items allows you to focus on the present moment and let go of the negativity that may be permeating your mind. It’s a fun way to be spontaneous and see how many different marks you can make.
How to Start Painting with Nature Objects
Take a walk around your backyard, on your favorite nature trail, at your local park, or another outdoor area, and gather a variety of nature items to use in a mark-making exercise.
Get some acrylic paint or acrylic ink and begin to make marks with your items.
You can dip leaves in paint and press them onto your paper, you can use sticks to draw lines, you can add paint to an acorn topper and stamp circles, and those are just a few ideas. Spontaneous marks can be more interesting than anything else because you can’t predict what will happen. You just have to let it go.
Nature and creating combined can help you let loose and get into the painting process instead of focusing on the outcome. Eliminate those pesky feelings of self-doubt and perfectionism when you play in a non-judgmental way. All you’re doing is exploring what these natural items can do when you use them with paint.
To fully immerse yourself in the process you can take your materials outside and play. This full sensory experience can enhance your creative practice and allow you to feel connected with the earth and your surroundings.
Today’s video is a mash-up of a few Explore Mark Making videos. Explore Mark Making is a 30-day journey for hesitant creatives struggling with knowing where to start or what to do, created so they can overcome the fear of the blank page, build confidence in their unique marks, and start a daily creative practice in under 10 minutes a day.
Art Supplies Mentioned
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Nature items