Art sows seeds for the soul - what does it mean?
Completing a series of 80 paintings in 2023 was a transformative journey for me. It was during this time that I coined the phrase "art sows seeds for the soul". Little did I know how much those seeds would grow and flourish in my life. It’s more than a motto—it’s the fundamental truth that guides everything I create and share.
Let me explain.
Art Sows seeds for the Soul
I believe art isn’t meant to be a finished product we simply consume and forget. Instead, each piece we encounter plants something inside us. A painting might drop a seed of wonder. A sculpture could plant courage. A simple sketch might grow into a memory that sustains us through difficult times. These seeds take root quietly, often without our awareness, and over time they transform us in ways both subtle and profound.
Creating with Intention
This belief shapes how I approach my own work. When I’m in the studio, I’m not just thinking about colour, composition, or technique—though those matter deeply. I’m thinking about what might grow in someone who encounters this piece. What will they carry away with them? What might bloom in their interior landscape weeks, months, or even years from now?
But the art studio is only part of the story.
Gathering Seeds
My 80 painting seeds of art not only led me to a new art gallery to showcase my work but also opened doors to new friendships and a vibrant art community. I found myself immersed in exciting adventures and opportunities that I never thought possible.
Iv'e found too that the most important creative work often happens when I’m not creating at all. I visit the beach regularly, watching how light moves across water, how the tide reshapes the sand with patient insistence. These walks aren’t about producing—they’re about gathering. The rhythm of waves, the cry of gulls, the endless horizon—these experiences become seeds I’m collecting for later.
Playtime with my dogs reminds me that joy doesn’t need justification. Their unselfconscious delight in the moment, their pure presence, teaches me something essential about art: it should come from a place of aliveness, not obligation. When I throw a stick and watch them bound after it with complete abandon, I’m learning about energy, movement, and the beauty of being fully engaged.
The Thinking Space
I spend time up in the mountains too, sometimes sketching, often just being present. These are my thinking spaces—places where I sort through the seeds I’ve gathered. Which ones want to grow? Which need more time? Sometimes I sit for hours and produce nothing but clarity. I’ve learned that this emptiness, this pause, is as vital to my practice as any brushstroke.
These moments of stillness and observation feed everything I make. They’re where I sort seeds, turning them over in my mind, feeling their weight and potential.
Sharing the Harvest
This philosophy of planting seeds shapes not just what I create, but how I share it. Every outdoor sketch group, every conversation about a piece, every image I post online is an opportunity to scatter more seeds. When someone tells me they’ve started drawing again after years away, or that a piece of mine hangs in their home and brings them daily comfort, I know those seeds are taking root in soil I’ll never see.
Art growing seeds for the soul defines me not just as an artist, but as a person. It reminds me that my work has purpose beyond aesthetics, that beauty is a form of nourishment, and that the best creative practice includes both the making and the not-making—the studio hours and the beach walks, the finished paintings and the mountain silences.
What I offer through my art has the power to grow into something I’ll never fully see or understand—and that’s exactly as it should be.
What seeds has art planted in your soul?
Judith Rose
If you would like to know more about my art, visit JudithRose.Art