Originally shared in my weekly newsletter, Insights from the Studio – June 27, 2025.
How do you feel about play in your art practice?
Is it central to how you work—something you make regular time for?
Do you dip into it intermittently, when there’s a gap between other projects?
Or do you know it’s important but still feel like you’re wasting time or materials when you try?
These are questions I’ve returned to again and again while developing my latest course, Creative Play Lab.
At first, it was going to be a simple short course: a few exercises to help artists loosen up and reconnect with play. But when I sat down to design it, I kept stalling. I had the sense there was more to say—something deeper needed to be built in.
Because play is powerful.
It opens doors to risk, joy, discovery. But without a framework, it can feel fleeting. And without understanding your relationship to play—what kind helps, and why—it’s hard to build on the moments that work or move forward when the spark fades.
That’s where a lot of playful workshops fall short. You’re left with a burst of creative energy and nowhere to take it.
So I slowed down. I brought in ideas from adult learning theory, studio teaching, and psychology. What emerged was something more grounded: a rhythm for playful practice that supports reflection and longer-term integration.
The Four-Part Rhythm
Each module of Creative Play Lab follows this rhythm:
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Experience – creative exercises to get you making
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Reflect – prompts and questions to explore what happened
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Understand – light-touch theory to support insight
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Integrate – ideas for bringing it into your ongoing work
This way, the act of playing becomes more than just a warm-up. It becomes part of how you develop as an artist.
Want to Explore Further?
If this strikes a chord, there are two ways to begin:
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Join the free 3-day challenge (starting 14th July) for a short, lively intro to the ideas
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Or explore the full Creative Play Lab course—a downloadable journey into artful experimentation, designed to work around your time and process.
What’s your relationship to play right now?
Leave a comment below or drop into the free community—we’re exploring this together.