What Japan Made Me Think About Creativity

This summer, I travelled to Japan with my family.

It was my first time in Japan, and I came home with far too many photos, a new appreciation for good matcha, and quite a few ideas that I kept thinking about when I returned to my studio in Zug.

Not ideas about how to paint.

Ideas about how we create space for creativity in the first place.

That is something I think about a lot in my work with Hands-On Art.

I work with people who are curious about painting and creativity, but who often arrive with the same sentence:

“I’m not creative.”

Or:

“I can’t paint.”

And then something interesting happens.

Give someone a blank canvas and tell them to make something beautiful, and suddenly there are a lot of rules in their head.

Give them permission to simply experiment, and the experience can be completely different.

You don't need to know what you are going to make

One of the things I loved about travelling in Japan was the attention given to small experiences.

A meal wasn't just a meal.

A cup of tea wasn't just something to drink.

A garden wasn't simply something to walk through.

There was a lot of attention to what was happening in the moment.

It made me think about intuitive painting.

When I guide an intuitive painting session, I don't start by showing people how to paint a particular picture.

We start somewhere much simpler.

A colour.

A line.

A shape.

An impulse.

Then we see what happens next.

For someone who is used to planning, controlling and getting things right, that can feel surprisingly uncomfortable at first.

But that is exactly where the creative part begins.

You don't have to know the final picture before you make the first mark.

I also came back thinking about space

One of the Japanese ideas I kept returning to was ma — the space or interval between things.

I don't want to pretend that a three-week trip suddenly made me an expert in Japanese aesthetics. It didn't.

But experiencing that sense of space made me reflect on my own workshops.

We are very good at filling space.

Our calendars are full. Our phones are full.Our heads are full.

And then we sit down in front of a blank piece of paper and expect creativity to appear immediately.

Sometimes it needs a little room first.

This is one reason I include grounding and mindful moments in some of my workshops. Before we start painting, there may be a few minutes to slow down, notice the body and arrive in the room.

It doesn't need to be complicated.

Sometimes three quiet minutes are enough to change the way you approach the canvas.

Not everything needs to be perfect

Japan also made me think about imperfection.

I have always liked the fact that you can see the hand of the maker in something handmade. A slightly uneven line. A brush mark that wasn't completely controlled. Something that shows that a person was actually there.

That is also a big part of my approach to art therapy and creative coaching.

The aim isn't to teach you how to make a perfect painting.

In fact, perfectionism can be one of the things that gets in the way of creativity.

In my workshops, I often see people become more relaxed when they realise that nobody is judging the result.

There is no “good” painting sitting at the front of the room waiting to be copied.

There is simply your process.

Creativity can be quiet — or very playful

This is probably one of the things I want to take most strongly into the next chapter of Hands-On Art.

Not every creative experience needs to look the same.

Sometimes you need a quiet meditative painting session.

Sometimes you want to explore emotions through colour.

Sometimes you need to get out of your head and paint something huge with other people.

And sometimes you simply want to have fun.

That's why I'm developing different creative workshops and experiences around four ideas:

RESET — slow down and create a pause.

CONNECT — create something together.

THINK — experiment and look at things differently.

PLAY — do something completely outside the usual routine.

They sound different, but they all come back to the same thing:

creating space to reconnect through creativity.

Bringing Japan back to Hands-On Art

I'm not going to come back from Japan and suddenly turn my workshops into Japanese art classes.

That's not the point.

What I am bringing back is a little more attention to pace, space, curiosity and process.

I'm bringing back the reminder that we don't always need to rush towards an outcome.

And that creativity doesn't necessarily need more instruction.

Sometimes it needs less.

Less pressure.

Less judgement.

Less “Am I doing this right?”

And a little more:

“I wonder what happens if I try this?”

That question is at the heart of what I want Hands-On Art to offer.

Whether you join me for an intuitive painting workshop, a meditative painting session, a private art therapy experience or a creative team event in Zug, you don't need to arrive knowing what you are going to create.

You just need to arrive.

I'll take care of the rest. Thanks for reading this article.

Laura