The Mental Health Benefits of Creating Art

Posted on Jan 29, 2025

Reading through our list of shows planned through the year I noticed that Mental Health Day is celebrated (October) during our ‘Leather Diamonds’ exhibition time.

Being someone who’s suffered, on and off, with stress, anxiety and depression for 30 years plus, I thought it was relevant to mention the day. Since getting more involved with art and mixing with likeminded people I’ve discovered how many more people are affected in similar ways. Many creative people.

Initially, I was told not to talk about it, it was like a stigma. Thank goodness ideas have changed. Talking about the problem can be a relief and it can also help others who are holding back.

 I find this time of the year particularly stressful, probably due to the low light levels. I’ve found that when the stress becomes too much, the garden or my little studio are the places to escape to. Somewhere to create, to dig or plant, to focus and be peaceful.

As I was going through an email from “Jacksons” there was a feature on the subject, and several artists had answered the question “How does making art help your mental health?” here are two of them.

Molly Lemon

I often wonder how people process their emotions without creating art. I guess we’re all built differently but I know I’d find life a lot harder without the means to create. As a wood engraver, I find engraving very meditative, it focuses my mind and slows my thoughts. I have OCD and generalised anxiety which means my brain is often very busy and I tend to ruminate a lot on fears I hold of the future.

In my experience, to interrupt that intense anxiety I need to find something else to focus on. Sometimes engraving inside just isn’t enough so I head outside with my dog Winnie and my portable press to engrave and print en plein air. When I’m creating as the wind blows my hair around, with pieces of paper threatening to fly away (I’ve lost half an edition to the Mawddach Estuary before), and focusing on completing the print before the sun goes down, there’s just no space left to think about tomorrow’s worries

In addition, I find being in nature gives me perspective, looking up at tall trees and over vast rural landscapes helps me to realise my anxieties aren’t as big as I’d feared. For anyone struggling with their mental health, I’d recommend grabbing some art materials (it doesn’t really matter which ones) and just heading outside to create, the windier the day the better, fighting with the elements will help you feel far more present and alive. Also remember to focus on the process rather than the end result, if you return home with a watercolour completely soaked by the rain (I like to think of it as a collaboration with nature) at least you had an interesting experience creating it and you probably learnt something too.

 Tim Benson

Tim Benson is an oil painter who primarily paints portraits, figures, and plein air landscapes. He is a past president of the Royal Society of Oil Painters. 

My artistic practice and my mental health are inextricably linked; as a creative, I feel rudderless if I’m unable to paint for more than a few days. It has been this way to a lesser or greater extent since my early twenties. Soon after leaving art school, I started to suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, I think in no small part a consequence of the uncertain path in life that I had chosen to walk. It was this path that was something of a “curate’s egg”, the problem and the solution. Painting was both a source of uncertainty but also a source of deep satisfaction, the only place that offered me the sanctuary of mindlessness and total immersion. Thankfully my mental health has improved over the years as my place in the world has become less precarious. However, I still have the occasional wobble, and I find that immersing myself in a painting continues to offer me the headspace to filter out the noise that life sometimes throws at you

So, if you are a fellow sufferer, remember you are not alone and you do have a release valves, your creativity and the knowledge that lighter, brighter days are coming.

Would you appreciate us starting an “Arts Cafe” where we could meet once a fortnight and bring something to work on and have a general catch up and chat about how we are? We could do this at The Crossing it’s just a thought, let us know if its something you would like to do.

by Pam Renhard