Nice Things: October Edition
Nice Things: October Edition
A monthly dose of visual creative inspiration. This time: an autumn trip to Cornwall and Barbara Hepworth's studio.
A Halloween shop special: there’s a print sale and free shipping in my shop with the code WITCHPLEASE. And yes, there’s witch stuff.
It’s officially the last day of October. In my part of the world it is very dark in the mornings, the weather goes back and forth between rain and sun, the ground is covered in maple leaves, and the apples on the local tree are dwindling.
Did anyone do a few prompts this month? I managed some (including the witches today, of course), and at the very least it felt good to carve out some time to just got something into the sketchbook.
Today I’m sending you the October installment of Nice Things, a monthly installment that I do for paid subscribers. So far this year we’ve explored autumn color palettes, Scandinavian women artists, bathing, the sun, and seaweed.
Any kind of “nice thing” has felt almost entirely impossible to focus on these last few weeks as we barrel towards election day. But nice things are also what get us through. I don’t mean nice things as in extreme doses of luxury. I mean in the more everyday sense. The way the autumn sunshine pierces through the dark clouds of a rainstorm. How the light can turn golden in the afternoon. How the darkening of the day can be a call to soften a little, to slow down. Baking something. Loaning too many books from the library. The warmth of a woodstove after a cold swim. This last one is in fact a new-to-me nice thing that’s thanks to the house I moved into at the end of the summer.
Today’s Nice Things installment just happens to fall on the final day of the month, and I know I should be focusing on witches or something more seasonal (although if you need witches then look no further than this piece from
and this piece from ), but my mind is still holding on to the memory of my days in the U.K. a few weeks ago.For this installment I wanted to take you on a little journey of some of the things that inspired me during my trip, in particular a visit to Barbara Hepworth’s studio.
After all, art is an excellent reminder of the power of creating beauty. As a statement, as a practice, as a nice thing.
-Anna
These monthly installments of Nice Things are for paid subscribers, as a thank you for keeping this newsletter going. If you like getting Creative Fuel, maybe today is the day you become a paid subscriber.
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“In the contemplation of Nature we are perpetually renewed, our sense of mystery and our imagination is kept alive, and rightly understood. It gives us the power to project into a plastic medium some universal or abstract vision of beauty.”
-Barbara Hepworth, 1965