Coach Bennett’s Pearls of Wisdom 6 – Start Slow

In this blog series, I am going to share with you some of Coach Bennett’s pearls of wisdom and how they apply to my art practice.

For this post, we are going to talk about starting slow. During most of the Nike runs, Coach Bennett tells us to start slow and how some people are ashamed of running slow. Sometimes, he will say that we should run smart as a way to avoid the word slow. Slow running is to warm up your body and your mind to the act of running. It is important so that you can finish the run you intended with energy and willing to run again.

So how can you apply this to your creative practice? I do some warm up exercises whenever I sit down to paint. Like these leaves below.

If I am working on a pattern, I start with a simple composition, instead of a more complex one.

And then, once you get warmed up, you can move on to more intricate and complex styles.

The whole point is to get your hands and your brain warmed to the act of creating, after spending time not creating.

Happy painting!