There are many ways to cultivate creativity.

Is by a constant and vast research of images where I get my inspiration.

Creativity has to go through a self-confidence process. Through believing that the work I do is good and by valuing what I do. From then on everything is possible. The trace flows, the brush stroke pops and the shape is comes to be.

I spent a lot of time without painting. Time that made me forget what I like to do, the absence made me forget and forget myself along the way. 20 years, I was waiting for the ideal place to paint, draw, express my art. In my eyes, no place was good enough, because in my mind nothing was enough.

I was challenged to draw 7 paintings for a project of a restaurant that was on going at our atelier. The fear was installed. But what am I going to do? How am I going to do it? In how much time?

The project at hands was Olive. The concept was in connection to the family name, Oliveira, with olive oil, Fundamental seasoning in cooking and the symbology of the olive tree.

It was in a place, a small corner previously devalued where the process developed. After all, there is no perfect place, no perfect moment, there’s just the will of wanting to do.

The creative process begins when our mind does “click” and starts to photograph internally every drawing as if it’s something that already exists. It’s in this moment that the hand loosens and starts to dance throughout the paper and through the trace made is perceived the path that was taken to start the process.
I searched for detail images of olives, of the leaves of the olive tree, of the olive oil, for is through the viewing of what exists that I start studying the colours. Can you imagine the amount of colours and shines that run through the skin of an olive?
The beauty and the number of colours is incredible.

It is of a thoroughness, sensitivity and delicacy, a whole colourful world in a single item. It’s of a deep richness that bewitches me and leads to transpose something, with or without definition, onto paper.

Time is short and the paintings must be done. Procrastinating is part of a perfect creative world. It seems that the wanted perfection is unattainable. I’m afraid, but I keep going forward and with no expectations. I can seem small, I might take time, but I just have to trust the process. To stop or to wait? In both is like going to the fountain get water, if it’s not used it becomes stale… it dies. Drink the water that you collect and advance. To stop is to stop flowing. Let the emotion flow. It’s necessary to feel. Yes, I need to feel.

I feel each colour on the paper, each mix done to give volume. I feel the element that is being drawn in the moment. Feel the message of the moment in each painting.

To draw each olive was like playing. Its was so good to see my own development in these drawings, for I thought I didn’t know how to do it. Drawing a simple leaf it’s the craziest of challenges of nature. I needed more than 10 shades of green to get to the right one and understand what the best or which mix to do for it to get right. But can you believe it was the blue that gave the finishing touch?

7 drawings. In each one it emerged a message. The irony? They were made in 7 days. Nothing like little time to have adrenaline to create.

The message that emerge in this process was that I have to have more pride in myself and toast to my achievements.

Daniela Mateus