Blog | Mysite

All Posts

Jun 11
3 min

The Value of Frustration

First published May 31 2019 When making art, moments of grace sometimes occur, little shots of the miraculous when something ineffable op...

6 viewsWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 11
1 min

A Birthday Present for the Muse

first posted May 2019 This week I was invited to be Eric Maisel's guest blogger on Fine Arts America https://ericmaisel.com/2019/04/26/bi...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 11
4 min

Spring Cleaning The Routine

first posted April 17th 2019 A man will enjoy today what exasperated him yesterday, wrote Jean Metzinger. I would add, and vice versa. On...

2 viewsWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 11
4 min

The Lifespan Of Emotions.

first published April 2nd 2019 "The life span of any particular emotion is only one and a half minutes. After that we have to revive the ...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 11
3 min

Equilibrium

Thinking positively, and thinking negatively don’t always do what they say on the tin. We might over focus on the torment, always compari...

2 viewsWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 11
3 min

Morning Pages

first published March 5th 2019 It’s a month since I last wrote my blog; I missed the last fortnightly post. What happened? I got caught ...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 11
5 min

“I Feel Nauseous Doing This.”

first published February 6th 2019 I was coaching someone who experiences waves of nausea while making work. He’s hard working, dynamic, a...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
3 min

In Celebration Of Persistence.

first published January 2019 I like to call it determination. When I was in my mid twenties there was an event that confirmed the benefit...

2 viewsWrite a comment

Carl Jung, Faltering In The Dark, And Choosing To Dive.

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
4 min

Carl Jung, Faltering In The Dark, And Choosing To Dive.

first published November 21st 2018 “The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to r...

3 viewsWrite a comment

Anxiety And Boredom, Excitement And Patience

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
3 min

Anxiety And Boredom, Excitement And Patience

first published November 2018 I wrote before about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s ideas on flow, with his diagram indicating that it occurs wh...

2 viewsWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
4 min

The To Don't List

first published October 24th 2018 More than one client has complained to me about the problem of having too many ideas. Each time I have ...

3 viewsWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
4 min

Motivation and Appetite

first published October 10th 2018 Thursday morning, last week, one of my teaching days, was spent giving a presentation to year 2 art st...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
3 min

Back to Work

first posted September 2018 Re-introduced to Maria Popova’s wonderful Brain Pickings, I subscribed to her Sunday digest – a labyrinth of ...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
3 min

Getting Personal

first published September 11th 2018 There were aspects of my upbringing that supported my freedom to create. I grew up with a lot of phys...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
4 min

My Good Friend, Anxiety

first published August 2018 I blame creativity coaching. In an exercise, as a coaching student, where we co-coached on the topic of our w...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
3 min

Busy Times

first published August 14th 2018 It’s been a busy time; I’m preparing for an exhibition, having learned basic InDesign skills after a tut...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
3 min

Mistakes, Life and Light

first published August 2018 When I was a fourth year art student, I worked on the balcony in the Mackintosh at Glasgow School of Art (sad...

2 viewsWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
4 min

Celebrate your Supporters

first published July 2018 I love the aspect of painting that allows me to feel self reliant and free in making decisions. When the part o...

1 viewWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
4 min

Competition And Jealousy

first published July 2018 Last week I wrote about jealousy and envy. Dipping into my metaphorical postbag, I notice that the original req...

2 viewsWrite a comment

Elise V Allan

Jun 10
4 min

The Gift Wrapped In Envy

first published July 2018 ‘The great thing about this kind of work is that every feeling that you have, every negative feeling, is in a w...

3 viewsWrite a comment

{"items":["5ee2a378d3818a001745b0c1","5ee2a133795385001704fa44","5ee29f4d362d9b00171f24a2","5ee263594d29e50017b30741","5ee2622b1b91d800172eaa5a","5ee261d1d3818a0017450fe4","5ee260b2d3818a0017450cfe","5ee15d3143684c001724ec8c","5ee15b49c11c330017c69568","5ee15ac3798a150017b0e8dd","5ee159ccc925110018ff64af","5ee158f245d489001707f423","5ee157eaf9881c00173be2eb","5ee156e0afddfa001761e877","5ee155e90297630017e9f037","5ee1557c43684c001724e04e","5ee15454143f850017963d9f","5ee153cfd4f2b700172b2053","5ee15381ecda2500178d1444","5ee152a4f4201600177ccded"],"styles":{"galleryType":"Columns","groupSize":1,"showArrows":true,"cubeImages":true,"cubeType":"fill","cubeRatio":1.3333333333333333,"isVertical":true,"gallerySize":940,"collageAmount":0,"collageDensity":0,"groupTypes":"1","oneRow":false,"imageMargin":16,"galleryMargin":0,"floatingImages":0,"chooseBestGroup":true,"smartCrop":false,"hasThumbnails":false,"enableScroll":true,"isGrid":true,"isSlider":false,"isColumns":false,"isSlideshow":false,"cropOnlyFill":false,"fixedColumns":1,"enableInfiniteScroll":true,"isRTL":false,"minItemSize":50,"rotatingGroupTypes":"","rotatingCubeRatio":"","gallerySliderImageRatio":1.7777777777777777,"numberOfImagesPerRow":1,"numberOfImagesPerCol":1,"groupsPerStrip":0,"borderRadius":0,"boxShadow":0,"gridStyle":1,"mobilePanorama":false,"placeGroupsLtr":false,"viewMode":"preview","thumbnailSpacings":4,"galleryThumbnailsAlignment":"bottom","isMasonry":false,"isAutoSlideshow":false,"slideshowLoop":false,"autoSlideshowInterval":4,"useCustomButton":false,"bottomInfoHeight":0,"titlePlacement":"SHOW_ON_THE_RIGHT","galleryHorizontalAlign":"center","galleryTextAlign":"center","galleryVerticalAlign":"center","scrollSnap":false,"itemClick":"expand","fullscreen":true,"allowSocial":true,"allowDownload":false,"allowTitle":true,"allowDescription":false,"loveButton":true,"loveCounter":false,"videoPlay":"hover","scrollAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","scrollDirection":0,"overlayAnimation":"FADE_IN","arrowsPosition":0,"arrowsSize":23,"watermarkOpacity":40,"watermarkSize":40,"useWatermark":true,"watermarkDock":{"top":"auto","left":"auto","right":0,"bottom":0,"transform":"translate3d(0,0,0)"},"loadMoreAmount":"all","defaultShowInfoExpand":1,"allowTitleExpand":true,"allowDescriptionExpand":true,"allowLinkExpand":true,"expandInfoPosition":0,"allowFullscreenExpand":true,"fullscreenLoop":false,"galleryAlignExpand":"left","addToCartBorderWidth":1,"addToCartButtonText":"","slideshowInfoSize":200,"playButtonForAutoSlideShow":false,"allowSlideshowCounter":false,"hoveringBehaviour":"NEVER_SHOW","thumbnailSize":120,"magicLayoutSeed":1,"imageHoverAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","calculateTextBoxHeightMode":"AUTOMATIC","calculateTextBoxWidthMode":"PERCENT","textBoxHeight":0,"textBoxWidth":200,"textBoxWidthPercent":50,"textImageSpace":10,"textBoxBorderRadius":0,"textBoxBorderWidth":0,"textsVerticalPadding":0,"textsHorizontalPadding":-30,"titleDescriptionSpace":6,"customButtonText":"","customButtonBorderWidth":1,"customButtonBorderRadius":0,"loadMoreButtonText":"","loadMoreButtonBorderWidth":1,"loadMoreButtonBorderRadius":0,"imageInfoType":"ATTACHED_BACKGROUND","itemBorderWidth":1,"itemBorderRadius":0,"itemEnableShadow":false,"itemShadowBlur":20,"itemShadowDirection":135,"itemShadowSize":10,"imageLoadingMode":"BLUR","expandAnimation":"NO_EFFECT","imageQuality":90,"usmToggle":false,"usm_a":0,"usm_r":0,"usm_t":0,"videoSound":false,"videoSpeed":"1","videoLoop":true,"gallerySizeType":"px","gallerySizePx":940,"itemBorderColor":{"value":"#E8E6E6"},"galleryLayout":2,"modifiedGallerySize":true,"selectedLayout":"2|bottom|1|fill|true|0|true","layoutsVersion":2,"selectedLayoutV2":2,"isSlideshowFont":false,"externalInfoHeight":0,"externalInfoWidth":0.5},"container":{"width":940,"galleryWidth":972,"galleryHeight":1440,"scrollBase":0,"height":null}}