10 Artist Date Ideas

As it’s Bank Holiday Monday I wanted to write a fun, uplifting post and there’s nothing more fun and uplifting than an Artist Date. For those of you who are unfamiliar, an Artist Date is a concept thought up by Julia Cameron which appears in her brilliant book The Artist’s Way. She describes it as ‘a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist.’ An Artist Date should be fun, playful, exciting, nurturing and designed to be quality time between you and your creativity. A date doesn’t have to be expensive or over-ambitious but it should be something you find joyful. Artist Dates make you happier, more creative and more in tune with yourself. Try them out and see what a difference it makes. Here are ten of my ideas to get you started...

1. Go fruit picking and then make something yummy with all that lovely fresh produce.
2. Indulge your inner child by having a day of childhood. Read your favourite children’s book and eat your favourite childhood treat. (Times like this I really miss Woolworths’ pic’n’mix)
3. Write a letter to one of your favourite people.
4. Buy a plain top and customise it with your own embellishments.
5. Start a list book of your favourite things, like favourite films, books, people, shops, places, animals etc.
6. Plan out your dream holiday/wedding/home/garden/or whatever takes your fancy. Illustrate with magazine pictures.
7. Go somewhere you know well and take photographs as if you’d never visited it before.
8. Ponder who would be your ideal dinner party guests.
9. Treat yourself to a new nail varnish colour and a face pack. Have a little pamper session.
10. Go the library and borrow five books about things that interest you. Spend an hour or two reading through them and see where this new knowledge takes you.

Which of these ideas would you try? Let me know in the comments section below!