One of the things that I look forward to when I come home from my day job is to take a nice bath with some reading material. I found that you can read one or more chapters of a book a day and finish that book in a week or so. Right now I'm reading Dr. Eric Maisel's "Coaching The Artist Within" and find it to be a must read for all artists so I would suggest getting a copy when you get a chance.

  One of the chapters is called "Creating In The Middle Of Things" where he talks about how artists can't live in a vacuum and how life and life's demands are always around us. What that basically means is that an artist must learn how to create on a regular basis and not wait for "everything to be right".

  This chapter is inspiring to me as more or less, I've had that belief myself for years even before I got a hold of the book. Not that I've become a master of the concept, just knowledgeable. Some days you see and hear all the bad news about the economy on T.V. Your co-workers at your day job comment about it and add their bad experiences of the day. You come home and it's more trials and tribulation left on your answering machine. Trust me it is easy to just sit down and stay that way until bed time and to be honest, sometimes I have.

  There are some things that I have found helpful in making it more favorable that you do create everyday. The first one is a standard "classic" that any aspiring artist is told. You need to have a studio of some sort set up so you don't have the excuse of "by the time I set everything up ....." to use. This can be just a corner of a room, all that matters is that "painting stuff" doesn't need to be set up.

  Another key is taking the time to plan. Your chances of creating on a daily basis go up when you decide to block out a time even if that time is only a half hour, you know it's coming because you put it there so to speak. In doing so you also reduce your fear of the unknown a bit because some things are known, I'm going to paint here, here, and here and not here because I know that time frame just won't work.

  This leads you to this concept. Because you know you have a "painting slot" planned, if you allow something else to get in the way of it or don't honer it and "blow it off" you know you messed up and naturally want to do better next time. If you didn't have the plan to begin with you would still be the "rudderless ship" wondering when you will be motivated to paint again.

  If you use these ideas of having your stuff ready to go, planning when to paint, and figuring out why you didn't paint when you planned to, then you are in a great position to create in the middle of things if you keep trying and paint on a regular basis.