Kelly Herrick is a creative living guide, artist and author. Her three power sources are creativity, nature and magic, and she uses these to help people rewild their own creative souls. From her home in Derbyshire, UK, Kelly travels to wild, ancient and magical places to paint and explore. Her roaming soul and love for enchantment comes from her heritage on the travelling fair and you can see this influence in her nature-inspired artwork. Kelly loves to nourish creativity and you can join her for online courses and in-person retreats.

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What does Art is Magic mean to you?

Wild magic is at the heart of my art, I believe art is the way I communicate with the universe, a way I understand and speak to the world around me. It's the same wild, green magic of Mama Earth that runs through my art as it does through nature; the magic of creation. 

Why do you create art?

I make art because I believe it will save the world. I know that when I make art I help inspire and uplift people, giving them a more optimistic view of the world and themselves as part of it. When we all have this energy we can do amazing things!

Tell us about your journey to become an artist?

I have always been creative but I unleashed my inner artist in my 40s. I grew up on the fair, from a long line of Showmen and with Romany heritage too, so I was always surrounded by colour, shape, movement and sound. It was only years later, after playing the corporate game, becoming a mum and going through an unexpected divorce, that I decided to change my life around. I started to tap into nature and creativity as ways of coming home to myself. From there on in I painted whenever I could, learned from whomever I could and I felt like I had rediscovered who I was deep in my soul.

Tell us about your journey to claim the title artist?

For years I had blindly stepped into any title society deemed fit for me; mum, wife, boss, consumer, daughter, but this title of artist scared the heck out of me! I felt undeserving and was riddled with imposter syndrome. I think it was when I first took some paintings out to a local May Day gathering that I felt I gave myself permission to step into artist. There's some real symbolism there with May Day representing rebirth after winter, and because I was showing my work intentionally it felt like a real energetic shift for me.

What is it about making art that stirs your soul?

I am exploring and living the word 'soulfull' right now (I misspelled it on purpose). This is what art gives me; a full soul. It is my unique expression of the world, my connection to earth, to me, to the spirit of the universe. When I see my work come to life from a blank page I realise how generous, how creative, how powerful nature is and I realise I am another intrinsic part of it.

What is currently inspiring you?

Feeling emplaced in the land is really rooting through my current work. I'm exploring ritual landscapes, both ancient ones and ones I create myself, to discover more about my connection to the earth. It means I am painting more and more from imagination and expression than representing exactly what I see.

What does your creative Practice look like?

I use my sketchbook a lot for play, in fact I have them in nearly every size and shape! I love to walk in nature, paint outdoors and bring that feeling back to my studio. I usually let my imagination unfold in my sketchbook, then take it up into bigger works of art. Being outdoors and having adventures in the land is the fuel for all my work.

How do you keep your creative practice fresh and inspired?

I leave room for playfulness & fun and I try to be outside as much as I can. I take trips to weird and wonderfully wild places, with standing stones, or rocky cliffs, or ancient woodland. I imagine what it was like there thousands of years ago and I also imagine what is there that I can't physically see - then I try and put some of that into my art. 

What sort of creative walls do you hit?

I can sometimes feel excited and inspired to paint, then formalise my process with a big canvas and all the materials, only to feel myself dry up inside. If I try to be something I'm not, or paint how I think I 'should' paint it often stops me in my tracks. When I let loose and get into my flow everything is easy.

What do you do to move through them?

I'll take a step back and try to care less, then invite myself to play. That might be playing by getting outside, or by picking up a new material, or getting messy, or even creating something silly. This light heartedness leads to freedom and joy and that's when I do my best work.

How has your process evolved?

At first I tried so many things, materials, styles, techniques, but now I have found my way and my own voice. We all copy when we are learning but now I can take something interesting to me and make it entirely my own. Nature subjects have always been my inspiration though, and this connection to the natural world has been a golden thread weaving all the way back to my first painting. 

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your creative journey?

That creativity is a journey and there won't ever be an endpoint. I used to believe I would master my art at some stage, that I would come to a final achievement, but I see now that would have meant I'd stopped growing. Now I turn this early frustration at not being good enough into a constant source of surprise and delight and a way to keep growing as an artist.

Do you have a Creative Self Care Practice?

My studio space is my very own sacred grove. Just being in there, away from the hubbub of life is like going on a retreat, I have fairy lights and everything! Making time for art, no matter how busy I am, is my main self-care practice. I have learned to say no to more things, to stop worrying about housework, or having a full social calendar, to be able to gift myself the time I need to explore my creative self.

Do you have any creative rituals?

I like to faff about a bit before I settle down to paint. I'll often look back through sketchbooks, or touch my materials, and have a cuppa. This creative foreplay is often the transition time I need to get myself into a more creative mindset. Then when I go out to paint I like to really emplace myself in the land and I'll often collect an item like a rock or leaf for my wonder cabinet back in the studio.