What to do when you find yourself in a creative desert?

I’ve found myself in a creative desert!  Even my daily landscape is once again dry and dusty with no rain falling during the winter!  I must admit that like my natural environment, I’m going through a really ‘dry’ time creating at the moment, and feeling very much like this dead leaf that I tried to paint recently in my sketchbook.

struck by artist’s block

No matter how hard I try to be inspired, nothing seems to come or sparks my creativity.  This brings with it all kinds of chatter in my head…”I can’t draw”, “I’ll never be able to paint again”, “What if I never get inspired again!”

Do you ever go through periods of time in your creative practice where it feels like everything is standing still??  What do you do to help yourself get out of the creative desert??  I’d love to hear what works for you.

I’m told that this is fairly common, but it sure is no fun going through it and wondering if you’ll every come out the other side.

quiet moments can water the creative desert

Still, even though I’m feeling like this for the last couple of months, I’ve been trying to encourage myself to do one or two small sketches that only take a small amount of time, just to do something, and hoping that through the doing small, going for walks, reading novels and chatting with friends over coffee, some inspiration may come in the days ahead.

inspiration from unexpected places

Yesterday I received an email from Urban Brew Coffee (where I buy some of my coffee pods) talking about ways on how we can turn things we struggle with into a potential to have fun to redirect our brains!

So that got me wondering if it is possible to water my creative desert by finding ways of making it fun!  (and drinking coffee of course!)  The coffee guy suggested getting simple, getting silly and getting creative!  So what do you think?  Any suggestions on how I could make it fun to see if I can light that creative spark again?