Creating meaningful work isn’t just about talent; it’s about how you support yourself as an artist day after day. In this reflective and deeply grounding piece, curator Kimberly Conrad of The Splendid Life Studio shares her approach to a creative practice for artists that nurtures both inspiration and sustainability. Through four essential pillars of Beauty, Authenticity, Embodiment, and Systems, Kimberly invites artists to create from a place of intention, self-trust, and respect for their creative lives.
Coaching The Artist Within – Lessons From The Splendid Life Studio
Hello Beautiful People,
Let me begin with full transparency, I have not “mastered” the things we’re going to chat about today! True mastery would mean to be on top of All of these things All of the time! In that respect I am still a work in progress, and likely always will be. Isn’t that after all, the authentic human experience? 🙂
Today I’m sharing the Four Basic Pillars of The Splendid Life Creative Practice.
These pillars are Beauty, Authenticity, Embodiment, and Systems.
Beauty as the Foundation of Your Practice
Let’s start with BEAUTY and the science behind why surrounding ourselves with beauty matters. Beauty is actually regulatory! Who Knew?:)
Because our nervous system responds to what it sees, smells, hears, and touches, beauty helps to activate our parasympathetic nervous system, which is our calm, creative state. Beauty is one of the quickest ways to shift into a creative state, as it gives the brain coherence, which naturally boosts creativity. When we’re in this state, we breathe deeper, our intuition is sharper, and consequently, our ideas flow more clearly. When we’re surrounded by beauty, our bodies relax, and our emotional channels open up. If this is news to you, I invite you to make it a point to notice, next time you gaze at something beautiful or meaningful, how your breath slows and deepens, and the muscles in your face soften. It’s a real thing, my friend! On the flip side, if our environment is not visually pleasing, if it’s chaotic, cluttered, and out of order, it shifts our nervous system into a state of tension.
Beauty also helps to elevate our identity and experiences. My office is on the main level of our home, separate from my studio, but it’s full of beautiful art and artsy things! My paper clips and pushpins, etc, are housed in vintage china bowls and colored glass. I keep flowers and a lovely arrangement of candles on my piano. When I work at my desk late at night (I’m a night owl), I love candlelight and soft classical music. I have multiple places in my house where I paint, but I find that when I’m in my main studio downstairs, my expectations are elevated and I view my art in a more reverent way. It’s beautifully designed in my favorite colors. There’s a green velvet sofa, lovely rugs, and magenta doors with ornate glass doorknobs.
My bedroom was various shades of pink and green the entire time I was growing up. There is something emotionally grounding to me in that color combo. There’s an identity shift when I step into that studio. I have painted in beautiful dresses for years. I get paint all over them, which is perfectly okay because I buy them just for that purpose. For me, dresses are the most comfortable, and make me feel beautiful, and I find the more beautiful I feel, the more elevated, fulfilling, and successful my painting experience is. I also believe surrounding myself with beauty and clothing myself beautifully is a form of self-respect and a small act of self-love. It reminds me, as I’m creating lovely things for others, that I, too, am worthy of the beautiful life I desire.
Authenticity Within Your Creative Practice
The second pillar of The Splendid Life Creative Practice is AUTHENTICITY.
It’s important to allow ourselves time to play and experiment, whether in a paint journal or canvas. Knowing who we are as artists at any given time is crucial, even though we’re always evolving. Taking the time to play helps us stay connected to ourselves as human beings, in addition to our professional selves. One of the biggest challenges artists face is letting go of what we think people want, or what we think will sell, and instead, creating what our hearts long to express.
It can be especially hard to switch gears when we have become known for a particular subject or style, and our heart longs to create something completely different. I’m experiencing these exact feelings, even as I write this. I’ll be releasing a body of work in 2026 that has been on my heart and in my brain for over a decade, but is completely different from what my collectors expect to see from me. That’s a scary thing for any artist. Another challenge is following our intuition as we paint, especially when it’s leading us in a direction other than the one we planned. It’s through this process that we often stumble onto or into our next evolution.
There is an art to being flexible, without compromising what we know to be true about ourselves as makers.
I firmly believe there is a very specific collector out there for every piece of art I create, and that when the time is right, they will find each other.
I actually think about this sometimes when I’m painting, and may even have a conversation with them, though I have no idea who they are! Because of this, I rarely paint over older work. If there’s a piece that I REALLY don’t like, or feel is fundamentally lacking in composition, that’s one thing, but I’m not one of those artists who has a hard and fast rule that if it’s been sitting around more than a year etc., I paint over it! Art is timeless. I remember a fellow artist visiting my gallery and commenting on a piece, and I told her it was 12 years old. She said something to the effect of “Oh my goodness, get rid of it, clear the energy”.
While I can appreciate the concept of moving energy, it was a beautiful and consequently sold just a few weeks later to a woman who had been looking for “exactly this” (her words) for years! This has happened to me numerous times, where I thought of painting over something and didn’t, and shortly after, it sold! It always serves as a reminder to me that someone out there is looking for exactly what I have created. Someone out there is looking for exactly what YOU have created.
Collectors connect with pieces that move them. I believe when we create authentically from the heart, the emotions and energy we translate onto the canvas connect with exactly the right collector. This is a direct manifestation of the Miracle of Visual Language!
Embodiment and Identity in Your Artistic Practice
The third pillar of The Splendid Life Creative Practice is Embodiment. I coach a LOT around this concept.
Embodiment requires clarity.
If we want to shift our level of success in anything (art career included), we must first know what it is that we want. We can’t work towards nothing. We can only work towards something. Once we decide what it is we want, we must shift our identity. We can only succeed to the extent of who we believe ourselves to be. If we want to soar higher, we must first see ourselves as that higher version, then embody her. We must align our thoughts, actions, energy, and environment with HER! As we choose her thoughts, habits, and environment, we elevate and expand and begin to live AS her, and by default draw to us what she desires, and experience what flows naturally to her.
Imagine that you are already this woman, this higher version of you. What are her core values? How does she begin her day? What is her environment like? How does she dress? What thoughts does she think? How does she care for herself, her studio, her home? What are her habits? What is her workday like? How does she spend her free time? Who does she spend her free time with? How does she end her day? As you answer these questions, you’ll become aware of what you will have to add, subtract, and, more importantly, who you have to become to achieve the success you desire; to become the version that is living the life you have currently made a goal. Once you have the answers to those questions, you have to act upon them, or all will remain a dream and never become a reality.
This brings us to the fourth pillar of the Splendid Life Creative Practice, which is SYSTEMS.
Systems That Support Your Sustainable Creative Practice
There is a difference between dreams/goals and systems. Setting a goal is what we do once we’ve acknowledged what we desire. Usually, setting a goal involves a specific accomplishment and timeline. Systems are what we need in place to support our goals and bring them to fruition. Systems are necessary for the embodiment process.
The right systems set us up for success and eliminate decision fatigue. We’ve all experienced how motivation ebbs and flows. Systems carry us through when motivation wanes.
Systems can be as small as a daily spiritual ritual, to high-tech automated structures, and everything in between. The important thing is that your systems suit your way of being and working, meaning they feel fairly natural and fit in with your creative rhythm.
For example, if you are a night owl (like me) and that is when your creativity is heightened, it would be ridiculous to force yourself to paint every day at 8 AM. That being said, it still requires a certain amount of discipline to create any new habit.
Here are a few examples of systems for success as a “maker”.
- Exercise first thing in the morning. It helps to wake up the brain.
- Enter the studio at the same time each day.
- Begin your creative time with a particular practice or ritual. Maybe you meditate, read something inspiring, light a candle, play a particular song or style of music. Maybe you have a special warm-up practice.
- Arrange your studio in a way that supports your creative flow.
- Keep your workspace clear and your supplies organized and easy to get to. (There’s nothing worse than entering the studio all pumped up and inspired, only to have to spend 30 minutes cleaning off your art table and finding the right supplies! By the time you’re ready, the thrill is often gone. What an energy thief disorganization is!!)
As I said earlier, I have multiple spaces for painting in my home. This is one of my systems for success. I have easels and paints in my office. I also have drawers of art supplies and journals for writing in my breakfast nook, as well as my bedside table.
At different times in my life, this has been crucial to keep me painting and writing.
I have had several seasons of caregiving, where working downstairs in my basement studio was not an option. Just last year, in a two-month period of time, my sweet hubby received a heart transplant, my senior dog went blind, and we added a puppy to our household. Working downstairs was definitely not an option for several months.
Having the things I needed in place on the main level allowed me to keep creating, even if not as much. Currently, I have my Mom here. She can’t do the stairs, therefore can’t be in the studio with me. While I do spend some time in my studio during the day, I’m also creating color studies and small pieces in the breakfast nook where I can be with her, because I have a mobile paint station in that room. I set up a system for success.
Some artists I coach begin their day with admin (answering email, writing newsletters, website updates, creating content) and then paint. Others do the opposite.
I answer email daily, but find it easier to dedicate certain tasks to certain days of the week. I have specific days for coaching calls, entire days dedicated to painting, and a separate day dedicated to writing (blog posts, newsletters, articles, book content, course content). I set aside another day for batching social media content, which consists of shooting photos and video, creating graphics, etc. Some artists do a bit of all of these things daily. I of course have to sometimes, but it’s always my preference to dedicate specific days for these tasks, painting and writing especially.
Large blocks of time prevent a break in concentration and protect my creative flow. Then, of course, there are things like packing and shipping and bookkeeping, all of which need systems within themselves to operate smoothly. If you have team members, it’s important to have specific systems set up there as well: meeting times, communication guidelines, and timelines that everyone understands and adheres to. There are things like automations for social media posts, sales pages, funnels… the nuts and bolts part of the business that most artists like the least. Every good habit, practice, or system that you take the time to put into place and adhere to furthers your chances for success.
Maybe as you read this, you’re thinking, “What happened to the fun, the JOY of being an artist?” At first glance, the discipline of systems might seem stifling, but in reality, discipline is so freeing. It keeps the mental clutter at bay. Let’s be real, my friends, there is only so much shelf space in the brain at any given time, and if those shelves are full of confusion and tension, and the drudgery of decision making, there’s little space for creativity. Systems eliminate a lot of stress and allow for a joyful, creative environment both emotionally and physically.
Okay friends, I had so much fun sharing with you, and I hope you find yourself just a bit motivated, if not inspired. I’d love for you to share some of your own systems with me and tag me on Instagram @thesplendidlifestudio and visit online.
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