When You Just Know

Over the last 18 months, I have learned to trust my intuition.When something is right, I get this inner "knowing." I feel it as an instant connection inside me. I can deny it (as I often used to) or I can ignore it (as I often used to) and if I do either of those things, the moment is gone, the opportunity passes.But if I recognize that jolt of electricity for what it is - a sure sign that I am on the right track - I will make the decision instantly and do the thing, whatever it is.I signed up for an expensive online painting course last year based only on that feeling, and that course transformed my art and my life.I went to London for a creative retreat after watching one Facebook livestream and feeling as certain as I have ever been that I needed to go. I could not articulate why. I couldn't say what I wanted to get out of it. I just knew I had to go. That weekend catapulted my transformation forward in ways I could not have foreseen.Just recently, I had the idea to ask Alice Sheridan to join me and create a podcast. My old self would have looked into what was involved (a ton of work it turns out!) and then probably decided not to bother. My new self instantly knew it was a good idea, and sent her a message before I could think of all the reasons not to do it (she said yes!)Yet, despite seeing the evidence of the power of my inner knowing, it has taken me a while to apply that same intuition to my painting. Which is a shame, because it turns out to be just as effective in art as it is in life."Paint in vivid reds" the knowing said just before Christmas. And so, I did. I covered over two fairly promising paintings with various shades and the resulting paintings are my favourites yet.Those red paintings popped into my mind the other evening as I stood in my kitchen looking at a work-in-progress. I often bring paintings into the house so that I can look at them as I go about daily life and try to determine what they need by seeing them in a different setting. So there I stood, in my kitchen at 11pm, wondering what to do about this green and blue painting.On the opposite wall hung one of a series of dry stone wall mixed media pieces that I made a few years ago. And all of a sudden, I knew what my painting needed - it needed some of that dry stone wall. So I grabbed my scissors and some glue, and collaged in some of the stone wall and then, because that felt good, I took some old magazines and searched for good colours and then cut those out and added them - and by the time I had finished it was 12.30 and I had a painting I liked a lot more (as well as a kitchen floor covered with scraps of paper and blobs of rapidly hardening glue!)I'm continuing to work on this, as it's not there yet, but the collage has brought it to life and that idea came out of nowhere.The problem is that these flashes of intuition don't come very often and now I'm wondering how to cultivate them ... are there conditions I can set up that will conjure them more frequently? Or is it just a case of plodding on until one comes along?If you have any ideas, let me know!If you don't already receive my weekly emails, sign up here to receive exclusive content every Sunday. And don't forget to join my Facebook group to meet other artists and become part of an inspiring and always supportive community.