Monday Morning Art School: art in times of stress

This may come as a big surprise, readers, but we’re in a period of upheaval. We all react to stress differently, but for many of us, it’s very hard to concentrate during challenging times—we’re too busy worrying and doomscrolling to focus on anything positive.

While keeping your artistic practice alive through stressful times is challenging, it can also be healing.

First, let’s talk about working when you’re feeling paralyzed:

Lower the Bar Without Losing the Thread

I’ve just come through a long artistic drought. My way of coping was to do less, but to at least do something. For me, that meant drawing instead of painting, and I clung to teaching my weekly classes.

Doing something could mean watercolor sketches, tiny color studies, or even color-mixing charts. These are practice strokes against the day when you’re ready to start really painting again.

Make a tiny window of time just for art

When my house threatens to overwhelm me, I make a point of putting away ten things and then stopping. I insist on the stopping because if I don’t tell myself that, I’ll never start. It means cleaning isn’t an insurmountable burden.

A similar technique works with art practice. Make yourself a tiny ritual: sketching for ten minutes while you drink your coffee, for example. Humans find comfort in routine. And stop telling yourself that you have more pressing responsibilities. Anyone can afford ten or twenty minutes; I’ve wasted more time than that reading about the Kardashians.

Keep an idea journal

I can’t stress the importance of drawing your ideas, even if they’re just scribbles. Even chaotic things have creative value. I’ve recently stopped sharing my sketches, because they’ve suddenly gotten less-developed and more experimental. Not everything needs to be finished for public consumption.

Switch up your medium

When I’m flailing around in oils, I switch over to watercolors. They feel more relaxing, even though there are just as many ways to mess them up. It’s not that another medium is easier; it’s just that it applies pressure in different spots.

With a little help from your friends

Painters do art alone, but that doesn’t mean we need to isolate ourselves. I survived my art drought with the support of my students and my close friends. Even when you’re too paralyzed to make art, you can talk art, and that in itself can get you moving again.

Be patient with yourself

Okay, that’s easier said than done, especially for us impatient people. But your creative drought is also when you’ll gather new ideas and insights, think and even rest. It took me months to have the epiphany that got me moving again, and that was all built on the back of indirect work.

How does art reduce anxiety?

Let’s talk about why you should keep making art even if you’re feeling overwhelmed right now.

First, you’ll find that it helps reduce anxiety. When you make art, your brain shifts from a stress-driven state (the sympathetic nervous system) to a calmer state (the parasympathetic nervous system). Your heart rate slows, cortisol levels drop and breathing deepens.

Psychologically, making art puts you into a flow state. That has no past or future and therefore little space for worry. Art is, of course, all about making the intangible tangible, which helps you externalize feelings (even if what you’re making has nothing to do with emotion). That reduces the power of anxiety.

Art therapy has been proven to work for PTSD, depression, and chronic stress. Why not let it work for us, too?

Reserve your spot now for a workshop in 2025:

• Advanced Plein Air Painting, Rockport, ME, July 7-11, 2025.
• Sea and Sky at Acadia National Park, August 3-8, 2025.
• Find Your Authentic Voice in Plein Air, Berkshires, MA, August 11-15, 2025.
• Immersive In-Person Fall Workshop, Rockport, ME, October 6-10, 2025.