How Nature, Music, and Literature Shape My Creative Process

Every artwork begins long before the first stroke touches the surface. For me, inspiration flows from three powerful sources: nature, music, and literature, each one weaving its own influence into my creative process. These elements shape not just what I create, but how I feel as I create it, guiding the colours, textures, and stories that emerge in my work.

Nature: My Most Faithful Muse

Nature has always been the backdrop to my imagination.

A shifting sky, the hush of a woodland path, or the way light catches on water, these details linger with me long after I’ve stepped back indoors.

When I walk, I’m collecting impressions:

• palettes found in wildflowers

• patterns in tree bark

• the emotional quiet of an early morning breeze

Back in the studio, these memories filter into my brushwork. Some pieces become gentle abstracts inspired by light and colour; others lean into landscapes shaped from places I’ve loved or longed to visit. Nature invites me to pause, breathe, and create from a place of stillness.

Music: Painting Emotion Into Colour

Where nature influences what I see, music influences what I feel.

My studio is rarely silent, music helps carry the energy of a painting from beginning to end.

Soft, atmospheric tracks encourage slow layering and subtle blending.

More dynamic rhythms push me toward bold gestures and richer contrasts.

Sometimes a painting begins simply because a melody sparks a mood, a feeling I want to chase across the canvas. In many ways, I think of my process as translating sound into colour, letting emotion become texture.

Literature: Storytelling Through Brushstrokes

Books fuel a different kind of inspiration.

A single sentence, a vivid setting, or an emotion articulated beautifully can stay with me, shaping the narrative undercurrent of a painting.

Literature reminds me that every artwork tells a story, even abstract pieces hold meaning, memory, or emotion beneath the surface. The stories I read often push me to create pieces with a sense of depth and symbolism, inviting viewers to imagine their own interpretations.

Where All Three Meet

Though nature, music, and literature spark inspiration in different ways, they often merge when I paint.

A piece may begin with colours borrowed from a landscape, find its rhythm through a favourite song, and gain emotional nuance from a line of text that touched me.

This blend keeps my creative process intuitive, alive, and ever-changing. No two paintings come from the same moment or the same feeling, and that’s what makes creating so magical.

I hope that when you explore my work, you feel even a hint of the beauty, emotion, and story that inspired it.

Thank you for joining me on this creative journey.

With love and minerals,

Ellie Jane