I wish I could teach folks to listen to their own hearts and minds more, when it comes to creating art. It is such an intangible thing to pursue: artistic confidence.

Red Point Beach, Torridon, Scotland, March 2022

Confidence does not imply aptitude to create great work. Neither is confidence the act of over compensating for one’s own abilities. Cockiness is not Confidence. Confidence is about being on a solid foundation of knowing where you are, and being able to live with it.

Confidence is also the act of being present, and of having an accurate view of one’s own abilities. Of knowing where your work needs to improve, and where its strengths and weaknesses lie. And of being comfortable with this knowledge.

Confidence is also the act of being able to try things without fear or worry, or of too much doubt. All artists doubt. All artists worry. But confident artists don’t let fear or doubt hijack their creative decisions too much.

Therefore, arrtistic confidence is the skill to have the convictions to follow through with what you want, and not to be swayed by what others are doing, or what others say. Not all feedback is of equal merit. Confident artists have developed the aptitude to be able to pick and choose the feedback that they see merit in, and discard the rest.

Artistic confidence is also the skill in understanding that not everyone will like your work, and still be comfortable and happy. If you are always hurt by other people’s views, then you need to work on your confidence. All artists create bad work, even those that you think highly of create bad work. How they deal with it is what matters, and that comes down to confidence.

I wish I could teach folks to listen to their own hearts and minds more. So often I feel that we know what we want to do, but self doubt and fear muddy the waters for us. We look for solutions in what others say too much, when we actually have the answers ourselves. We just need to listen to ourselves more.