Do you know what an artist date is?
I am currently reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron as I am on my road to creative recovery after a long period of feeling creatively blocked and feeling like I had nothing to say.
I thought I had been enjoying my time away, but something inside me kept demanding to come back to my creative self and fulfil my truest aspirations.
And then I started reading The Artist’s Way.
In the book, Julia Cameron suggests two mandatory practices for anyone trying to recover their creativity: Morning Pages and Artist Dates.
Morning Pages are three pages of longhand writing, done first thing in the morning, without worrying about what you’re writing or whether it makes sense.
Artist date is something different, and I heard it for the first time in this book.
What is an Artist Date?
Table of Contents
An artist date is a little solo outing or sometimes simply a little adventure at home, designed to nourish our creativity, but it doesn’t necessarily involve making art at all.
You might go to a bookstore.
Wander through a flower market.
Take photographs of places.
Visit a neighbourhood you’ve never explored.
Go somewhere beautiful and simply sit there.
It is a date with yourself as an artist purely done for the fun of it.
You don’t have to produce anything.
You only have to take yourself out and spend time with yourself.
Why Go on an Artist Date?
Creativity requires nourishment too.
Going on an artist date and regularly meeting yourself as if you are your favourite person to meet fulfils that requirement.
As artists, whether we are writers, painters, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, designers or simply people who enjoy making things, we cannot keep creating with love if our inner world feels impoverished.
We need experiences, beauty, conversations, books, nature, music, food, movement, solitude and moments of wonder.
We need to keep meeting life.
And an Artist Date is one small way of doing that.
It is a way of saying to yourself:
I am interested in you.
I want to know what delights you.
Let’s go somewhere together.
She says it might feel like it’s frivolous or that nothing is happening.
You might think, I have so much work to do. Why am I wandering around a bookstore?
Or:
How is sitting in a café going to make me a better writer?
Shouldn’t I be doing something productive?
We are so used to measuring our time by productivity that doing something simply because it makes us curious can feel almost uncomfortable.
But she asks us to trust the process and diligently take ourselves on these dates, even when we aren’t sure anything is happening.
And so currently I am in week 3, and this week I have been thinking about what to do for my artist date.
This made me want to create a list for myself and for anyone who wants to go out on an artist date and wants some ideas.
So I thought I’d share it here: for myself, for you, and for anyone else who is trying to find their way back to their creative self.
First, how to find your own perfect Artist Date
Before you borrow any of the ideas below, I actually recommend making your own list.
1. Make a list of everything you enjoy doing
You don’t have to overthink it.
Write down everything.
Things you loved as a child. Things you enjoyed in college. Things you used to do on weekends. Things you keep saying you’ll do “someday.”
It can be as ordinary as drinking tea, walking alone or reading poems.
2. Write down the last time you did each thing
Next to each activity, write the date or approximate year when you last did it.
It doesn’t matter if it was last month.
Or five years ago.
Or twenty years ago.
You might be surprised by what you find.
Perhaps you used to paint all the time and haven’t picked up a paintbrush in ten years.
Perhaps you loved skating as a child.
Perhaps you used to write poems on quiet afternoons.
Perhaps you loved sewing, gardening, cycling, cooking, or simply sitting somewhere alone with a book.
These things are clues to pick up the little pieces of ourselves that got neglected somewhere along the way.
When I wrote them down, these were the things that came up:
- Going for a walk alone
- Painting and colouring
- Sewing and embroidery
- Writing favourite lines from books
- Writing and reading quotes
- Listening to instrumental music
- Gardening
- Skating
- Ice skating
- Hiking
- Reading poems
- Cooking something new
- Reading books
- Eating good food
- Meditating
- Dressing up nicely
- Watching the sunrise
- Going on solo trips
- Making a scrapbook
- Doing DIY projects
- Decorating my room
- Buying things for home décor
- Going to bookstores
- Going to cute cafés by myself
- Riding a bicycle
- Learning something new
- Drinking tea mindfully
- Writing a story
- Decorating my journal
- Making a vision board
- Playing in water
- Being close to nature
For your artist date too, making your own list is a good place to begin.
100 Artist Date Ideas
I’ve divided these into a few categories, but don’t feel restricted by them. An Artist Date can be anything that makes you feel curious, alive, playful or more connected to yourself.
Artist Dates Outside the House
1. Visit an art gallery and choose your favourite painting.
2. Go to a bookstore and pick a book purely by its cover.
3. Sit alone at a beautiful café and people-watch.
4. Sit by a lake or river and sketch whatever you see.
5. Take a train somewhere nearby just for the afternoon.
6. Visit a beautiful old church, monastery or heritage building.
7. Go to a photography exhibition.
8. Wander around a flea market with no intention of buying anything.
9. Have a solo breakfast somewhere you’ve never been.
10. Visit a garden centre and choose a plant for your home.
11. Go to a flower market and buy yourself some flowers.
12. Visit an antique or vintage shop and look for objects with stories.
13. Go to a botanical garden and photograph interesting plants.
14. Take yourself to a pottery or ceramics studio.
15. Visit a museum you’ve never been to.
16. Explore a neighbourhood you’ve never properly walked through.
17. Take yourself to the cinema.
18. Visit a stationery shop and choose a beautiful notebook.
19. Go to a local book reading or poetry event.
20. Visit a home décor shop purely for inspiration.
Artist Dates at home
21. Rearrange one tiny corner of your room.
22. Try a new form of journaling.
P.S. I have created a 21-Day Journaling Guide for Self-discovery, growth and healing.
If you haven’t taken any other challenge of mine, you can join this challenge.
You will receive journal prompts and guidance from me for the next 21 days to inspire you every day.
23. Cook something you’ve never made before.
24. Bake a beautiful cake just for yourself.
25. Have a candlelit reading evening.
26. Make a floral arrangement.
27. Paint while listening to an album from beginning to end.
28. Have a “childhood afternoon”: cartoon, snacks, colouring, no productivity.
29. Make a little home altar/creative corner.
30. Take everything off your bookshelf and reorganise it aesthetically.
Cosy Slow Artist Dates
31. Go to a café with your journal and write down everything you notice.
32. Have a “novelist morning” where you dress nicely, take your notebook and write in a café.
33. Buy a magazine you’ve never read and spend an hour browsing it.
34. Go to a library and explore a completely unfamiliar section.
35. Have afternoon tea alone.
36. Buy a pastry you’ve never tried before.
37. Take yourself on a “beautiful things” walk and photograph ten things.
38. Sit somewhere beautiful and read poetry.
39. Go somewhere with a view and watch the sunset.
40. Make a playlist based on a particular mood and listen to it on a long walk.
41. Go somewhere and sketch the interiors.
42. Walk slowly and mindfully, paying attention to everything around you.
43. Buy a postcard and write a letter to your future self.
P.S Here is a letter to my 23 year old self
44. Take yourself out for coffee before work and simply enjoy the morning.
45. Spend an afternoon reading a book somewhere beautiful.
46. Have a solo picnic with a book and something delicious to eat.
47. Go somewhere quiet and listen to instrumental music.
48. Drink a cup of tea mindfully, without your phone.
49. Find a beautiful window and sit nearby to watch the world outside.
50. Go somewhere you’ve never been and write down five things you noticed.
Creative Artist Dates
51. Buy watercolours and paint without trying to make anything “good.”
52. Make a collage from old magazines.
53. Try charcoal drawing.
54. Paint a tiny canvas.
55. Make pressed flowers.
56. Go for a pottery workshop.
58. Make a little scrapbook from old photographs, tickets and receipts.
59. Make your own bookmarks.
60. Learn digital art.
61. Buy some air-dry clay and make little objects.
62. Try making a mood board for your dream home.
63. Write a short story inspired by something you saw that day.
65. Decorate your journal.
66. Try sewing or embroidery.
Nature Artist Dates
67. Go on a slow walk with or without headphones.
68. Collect fallen leaves and make a little nature journal.
69. Watch birds for an hour.
70. Visit a nursery and learn about five plants.
71. Have a picnic alone.
72. Watch clouds and photograph your favourites.
73. Sit under a tree and read.
74. Go for a sunrise walk.
75. Visit a forest, garden or park you’ve never explored.
76. Sit beside water and simply listen to it.
77. Go for a walk and collect photographs of tiny things you would normally overlook.
78. Spend an hour gardening without trying to make it productive.
79. Watch the sunrise and allow yourself to feel a little sense of wonder and awe.
80. Photograph 10 things you noticed on your walk.
Artist Dates for the Curious
These are the dates for when you want to shake yourself out of your usual routine.
81. Go to a restaurant and order something you haven’t tried on the menu.
82. Buy a disposable camera and photograph one ordinary day.
83. Go into a bookstore and ask yourself, “What book does the version of me I’m becoming need?”
84. Dress like the woman you want to become and take yourself out.
85. Have a “follow your curiosity” date. Leave the house with no plan and let yourself decide where to go next.
86. Choose a random bus or train route and get off somewhere interesting.
87. Spend an afternoon pretending you’re a tourist in your own city.
88. Make a “romanticise my life” afternoon: flowers, café, book and photographs.
89. Go somewhere beautiful without taking a single photograph, and then write about the experience.
90. Write a letter to your 18-year-old self, then go somewhere nice to read it.
And Ten More for When You Don’t Know What You Need
Sometimes the best Artist Date is the one you don’t plan too much.
91. Go somewhere you’ve never been.
92. Buy a book you’ve never heard of.
93. Draw something badly.
94. Sit somewhere and watch the world.
95. Learn one completely random thing.
96. Follow a road you’ve never taken.
97. Talk to someone interesting.
98. Make something with your hands.
99. Spend an hour with no phone.
100. Follow your curiosity.
See what happens.
Final Thoughts: Coming Home to your Creative Self
I don’t know where these Artist Dates are going to take me yet.
Maybe they’ll lead to paintings, stories, essays, photographs or ideas for this blog.
Maybe some of them will lead nowhere at all.
I just want to be interested in my life again and share those interests again.
I want to meet myself fully each day and each week.
And this time, I am humble enough to tell myself that I don’t know many things, but maybe I can try and see.
Artist date is going to be one of them on my road to creative recovery.
Maybe this is helping after all, because here is this post that I have posted since months of being away.
It does feel nice to come to this space I created for myself and others and I am going to nurture it again.
By going outside.
By reading a poem.
By buying myself flowers.
By sitting alone in a café.
By watching the sunrise.
By painting something bad.
By going on an Artist Date with myself.
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