In an ideal world… how much time would you have for art?

I started watercolor in 2017 - I worked part-time in the clinic at that time and I had ‘off days’ to have an afternoon to paint. The irony of those days was that the more time I had - the less I did. When we have the ‘luxury’ of time - sometimes we end up overthinking or pro-actively procrastinate and not create.

I probably spent more time with my self-doubt than my art when I had a lot of idle time.

Fast forward today - having 3 littles - I don’t get to plan or schedule as much because my kid’s schedule becomes the priority (e.g. meal times, naps/ bed/ bath routines etc). As such, I have these 15 to 30 min painting sessions where sometimes I spend just looking for a reference photo or selecting a color palette. I have also learnt to accept that it’s alright not to finish a painting or that I can come back to it. I almost look forward to the next session to see how the painting evolves from day to day - and also how my perspective changes the look of the art over time.

Because of having less time - I have become more efficient with my time knowing that I don’t have much to waste. I started to leave my supplies out, or select a reference photo the day before, or flip through reference books while my kids are playing and bookmarking pages.

I also started to do morning pages (I paint in the morning before my kids come out from their rooms) - this has come from how my kid’s nap times have been recently consumed by administrative tasks of being a creative business owner and I don’t get as much time to paint.

Ideally - not having kids around would mean I have more time to paint and yet having them around has also taught me to value and pioritise my time and space in a more efficient way - and also led me to painting the way I do - ‘layering’ as a result of never finishing a painting in 1 seating.

Now it’s your turn to reply or share/ reflect - in an ideal world… how much time would you want to have for art?