My two words of the year

+ how I've been brining more of them into my life

My words of the year appear to be Space & Simplicity.

I launched into 2025 with a guddle of ideas to try across my art, our community, my personal life. It turns out, creative ideas, when you have too many of them, can hold you back (as I explored in this youtube video). So far, this has been a year of trying to do less, but better - and today, I wanted to share with you a few of the ways I’ve been bringing these two crackers into my life, and how it’s been going / what I’ve been getting out of these changes.

I didn’t really set out to think about these words this year, or consciously bring more of them to my life - but they’ve snuck their way in, and I am very happy they did.

Before we dive in, I’d love to know what your words of the year have been so far, or what you might want them to be for the next 6 months? (but also…how are we already half way through the year?!) Pop em in a comment below!

Art

I’m an artist, and most of you lovely folks reading will be here most likely through my art, so that seems a logical space to start. When it comes to my words of the year, they’ve been taking centre stage in my art practice. I’ve been loving exploring space as a physical sense in my recent paintings of lochs, and thinking much deeper about how & why I leave space in my paintings; whether that’s negative space, through an absence of texture, a colour choice, or the scale of my marks.

Simplicity has shown up much more recently, following an intensive 70 hours of outdoor painting across two weeks. This reconnection with creating or starting paintings, directly inspired by observation in nature, working outdoors (with all the challenges, occasional discomfort, and improvisation that comes with plein air) has felt like a very pure, joyful & honest way to create, and I have been really loving the lightness of the recent work that has been pouring out. Lots of it is different or new subject matter, which feels vulnerable to share, but my curiosity and excitement won out, and I shared some of it in a reel on instagram here.

Community

I’ve been running an art membership called The Outdoor Sketchbook Collective for just shy of two years (?!) now - and lately, I’ve been reflecting on how I can bring these two words to this space, for everyone in the community there. For the collective, I create monthly resources & run live online workshops to help make more space for creative play and nature connection through our art.

As a trial, we are going to be testing out a monthly theme over the next three months, to guide our resources & workshops - to bring a little more focus, and the possibility of going deeper with the ideas shared in the group. Previously, each tier resource and workshop has been unconnected (meaning a LOT of variation in creative play & experimentation, fun) - but I’m really looking forward to seeing if this focus brings even more curiosity and calmness to the learning, as well as in the creation of the resources for me: limitations are after all a creative super power. There’ll still be a ton of exploration, but contained within a monthly theme instead of totally free.

Over the next three months we’re going to be exploring:

• July: Development Sketches (in 15 minutes)

  In July our workshops & resources will explore ways to develop our ideas -from quick 5 minute sketches to 15 minute focused developments. It's all about working loosely, and developing without tightening up - or overworking!

  🎈🎈🎈Our July Studio Play Workshop also celebrates the end of our June Outdoor Sketching Challenge! We're having a Sketchbook Party to share what we've been up to PLUS exploring ways to develop sketch ideas forwards. 🎈🎈🎈

  If you haven't taken part in the challenge fear not - please still come! Simply soak up the inspiration of the sketchbook share (or share something else you've been working on!) in the first part, and bring along existing sketches, paintings or ideas you'd like to develop for this session!

• August: Urban Nature Adventures

  In August we're going to explore Urban Nature: How can we capture nature in man made environments, in expressive ways? How can we capture that contrast between nature & cities/buildings gesturally & loosely?

  Nature connection can be found anywhere, and is especially needed in city environments, where so much of our populations live! This month we're exploring how to bring more of that nature connection/inspiration through our art.

• September: Contrast

  In September we're going to be exploring the power of contrast in our sketches / paintings and through our workshops & resources: from colour, marks, textures, line, to scale & value. Understanding contrast (+when & when not to use it!) has been such a game changer for me personally, and I am really looking forward to sharing with you how I've been practicing contrast in various ways in more depth this month.

If you’d like to find out more (online workshop dates etc), hit the button below:

Personal Life

Being honest, right now I work a lot. And right now, that’s the way I like it. I’m not sharing this to glorify working lots (not at all) - more to say, I think life has different phases, and right now, this is the path that I’ve chosen. I’m lucky to have been given the opportunity to shape my business in a way so that most of my work fuels me, and right now I am at a stage where I have the time to put my all into my art, my business, my community, my teaching. It feels like I am starting to set the groundwork for my partner & I’s future (after yeeeeaaarrss of muddly years trying to figure this creative work thing out), and this focus (and opportunity to focus) is one of the really big drivers for me.

Space & simplicity in my personal life right now looks like smaller scale gentle weekend adventures (or if I’m being social media trendy, micro adventures. Putting my pyjamas on at 8pm after work, a beer with friends, cooking a good meal in the evenings. Trying not to kill my basil plant (so far so good!). I’m currently figuring out how to work my new bread maker (genuinely very excited, hit me up with your fave bread recipes). The simple stuff seems extra beautiful and important this year, and making sure I take the time to appreciate these little moments has brought balance to busy weeks. A visual reflection of celebrating of the everyday has been the joyous weekly visual journals by

Helen C Stark

that lights up my Substack feed, and reminds me to keep this practice of noticing up. Thanks Helen!

Learning to go slower when I can, make space and enjoy the simple stuff isn’t always easy, I don’t always get it right, but my two words of the year have served me well so far, and I’m interested to see what else they bring in the next half of the year.

I’d love to know what little things in your every day have been brining you a little space or simplicity?

See you Outside,

Orla