Art From Intuition: Overcoming your Fears and Obstacles to Making Art [Paperback]

Dean Nimmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2008

Practical self-help for artists who want to free their creativity. Art from Intuition offers artists everywhere a unique system for freeing their own creative intuition, the sixth sense that directs an artist’s drive and work. By letting go of the self-criticism, doubt, and insecurity that discourage artmaking, artists will be able to soar to new heights of creativity. More than 50 practical exercises take the reader from the most basic intuitive art to more sophisticated techniques. Each exercise, supported by step-by-step instructions, is accessible to artists at every level, and the exercises can be done in any order. After each chapter, readers are encouraged to follow up by evaluating their drawings or paintings to see how they reflect their own personal goals. Works of art by students and contemporary artists exemplify how exciting and how productive a freer, more intuitive approach to making art can be.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dean Nimmer, a respected artist, was the chair of the fine arts department at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston for 23 years. He has lectured on art and the creative process at Harvard, Yale, MIT, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Art, Winchester College in Barcelona, Burren College of the Arts in Ireland and many other institutions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (April 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823097501
• ISBN-13: 978-0823097500
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.5 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #58,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Arts & Photography > Study & Teaching

More About the Author

Professor Dean Nimmer is the author of the successful book, "Art from Intuition", Watson/Guptill/Random House, 2008. This book is the culmination of his teaching career that focused on helping artists overcome the obstacles and fears that block creativity. Winner of over 20 national awards for his art and teaching, Dean Nimmer was granted the "2010 Distinguished Teaching of Art Award" given by the 16,000-member College Art Association.

Art from Intuition has inspired thousands of enthusiastic artists, teachers and students to make art with a renewed passion and free spirit. The book has over 60 innovative projects that encourage readers to explore new ideas and experiment with a variety of media and techniques that stimulate the imagination.

Here are some of the rave reviews of Art from Intuition by artists, art students and authors:

"Art from Intuition is a gem of a book and one of the best guides that I have read for those hoping to initiate and sustain the practice of artistic expression; art teachers and art therapists who have much to learn from a master teacher and painter about how to help others express themselves with authenticity and confidence; and all who want to learn more about the intelligence of intuition and creative imagination."
Shaun McNiff, author of Trust the Process, Art as Medicine, Art Heals and many books on artistic creativity.

"This book gives us a very complete menu of ways and means for the vital job of learning to trust our instincts. Nimmer sends us on a richly illustrated journey into the process of productive artistic work. This journey is eminently practical, yet always connected to the deepest human issues of creativity and its nurturance. He gives us great insight into the improvisational and dynamic dimensions of visual art. The book is also wonderfully made and beautiful to look at."
Stephen Nachmanovitch, artist, musician, teacher and author of, Free Play

"This visionary book could only come from the joyful and original mind of Dean Nimmer. As an art teacher I recognize it as a powerful new tool for the classroom. Offering more than helpful advise for beginner to advanced level students alike, it has the power to jumpstart creativity."
Monika Andersson, artist, teacher, Groton School, Groton Massachusetts

"At least by my accounting, you're only allowed to call yourself an artist if you actually make art -- and in Art From Intuition, Dean Nimmer offers a treasure trove of artistic strategies for getting off the starting blocks and accomplishing exactly that. Art From Intuition may be used as a textbook, providing instructors with literally dozens of carefully designed artistic exercises that could easily be structured into the curriculum of any studio art course."
Ted Orland, artist, teacher and co-author of Art and Fear

Dean Nimmer was the Chairman of the Foundations program and head of the 2D Fine Arts department at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston where he holds the title of Professor Emeritus. Professor Nimmer has conducted lectures and workshops based on his intuitive creativity techniques at Harvard, Yale, Vanderbilt, and James Madison Universities, and at the Central Academy of Art and Design, China, Burren College of Art, Ireland, and at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia. He has exhibited his work in more than 200 solo and group exhibitions across the U.S. and in China, Japan, Australia, Spain, Ireland, Germany, and France.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking that creative leap, December 29, 2008

By 

S. J. Bockett (Wellington New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Art From Intuition: Overcoming your Fears and Obstacles to Making Art (Paperback)

A cartoon in this book says it all: an artist is crouched, quaking, in the corner of his studio, his back to a large, blank canvas on an easel in the middle of the room. The cartoon (by Gary Haligren) is titled: "The Fear of Art." It is fashionable to get introspective about our artistic blocks, but in the end, it is only action that works - diving in no matter what. In his book "Art from Intuition" Dean Nimmer provides the momentum for doing this. And it's no empty advice. His ideas come out of the personal experience some years ago of enlivening his own approach to painting.

For those who have lost their creative spontaneity, the best prescription could well be the exuberant explorations that Nimmer presents in his book "Art from Intuition." The activities are far from being the formal "exercises" that one reviewer says the book contains. There are absolutely no constraints here. Painting blindfolded is hardly an "exercise!" More like a leap of creative faith. The activities are progressive, but Nimmer suggests that one way of approaching the book is to start anywhere - at the very end if you like - with an activity that takes your fancy. Anything to get you going.

Nimmer uses a conversational style that is engaging as well as persuasive, and hardly what you would expect of Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.

What may be a challenge is the idea of dividing your results into Like, Dislike, and To Be Continued, and actually keeping a folio of each category. Yes, a folio of your artwork you dislike! We are so used to keeping only the best. (Nimmer cunningly suggests that you might change your mind later on down the track.) It's rather like a form of visual brainstorming - no censoring of the initial results. The only `formal" suggestions are for setting up a time and a place, and making sure you have the materials you need.

Don't be put off by the criticisms of the artwork in this book. The examples show the creative process in the raw, not as the nice, tidy, final art works the rest of us are only willing for others to see. Nimmer's students are generous and courageous in sharing their personal process. However, their joy in the creative process is very much apparent in the photographs of them at work.

Nimmer's personal website (under Nimmer's own name) is well worth looking at. and maybe it will be the final thing that persuades you to take that creative leap.

31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Story Happen After Reading, December 9, 2008

By 

Duane (U.S.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Art From Intuition: Overcoming your Fears and Obstacles to Making Art (Paperback)

This is my AMAZING story. After reading only several parts of the book that was given to me, I thought that the jest of it is - (let go of your inhibitions, and just do something, anything creative, just jump in to it). So, while I was on a vacation at a small cliffside resort, on my patio area, I said to myself, okay I'll give it a try. I just started picking up different shaped stones in the 1 to 5 pound range, and began balancing a smaller stone on top of a second larger one to form about seven different sculptural shapes of what I thought was different birds facing where the sun was going to set, so it looked like they were sunning themselves, on top of two large flat rocks in my patio area(to bad I can't add a picture here of them, they looked terrific when the sun went down giving them nice long shadows). I really enjoyed the whole process, and viewing the final scene from different angles. Now, the Amazing part of the story. I happen to return 3 months later to the same resort room, and raised the room's blinds not expecting to see anything still standing out there, and to my absolute surprise were new great looking same size stone scluptures everywhere, as far as I could see to the sides. I went, and asked the owner of the resort who did these. He said, Oh, someone started it about 3 months ago, and now a lot of guests build them now, it's always changing, there great. For myself, I hope it keeps going on and on, because I know no matter what, they all enjoyed the process of being creative, as I did. Get the book, maybe you will you will learn to 'let go', and just do it, as I did. Duane

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Artists and Art Instructors, you need this book!, April 29, 2008

By 

Arty Girl (Boston, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Art From Intuition: Overcoming your Fears and Obstacles to Making Art (Paperback)

Dean Nimmer's teaching completely changed my notion of what it means to be an artist. The spirit of play Dean fostered led me to use materials and methods I had loved as a child, and I believe working intuitively is the only way I can make work that comes from the real me!

-Amy Baxter MacDonald

Artist, instructor and former student of Professor Dean Nimmer