Trusting the Trail

Reflections on change, creativity, and a painting unfolding in real time

Hello lovely souls,

The first crocuses have begun to appear - small, defiant bursts of colour against the cold. They feel like a quiet promise that something new is stirring beneath the surface.

This year holds a great deal of change in my personal life. I find myself suspended between excitement and apprehension - perhaps some of you know that feeling too.

Growth asks us to step forward, even when the ground feels unfamiliar beneath our feet.

I’ve been fortunate to have strong foundations and steady support. But that also means I haven’t often had to navigate change on this scale. There’s a tenderness in learning how. A vulnerability in not quite knowing who you’ll be on the other side.

That in-between space has quietly shaped my creative rhythm.

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For a while, I felt an urgency to produce - to create quickly, as though time might soon become scarce. But creativity resists pressure. It asks for space, not force. Trying to rush only amplified the noise in my mind.

So I slowed down.

I reminded myself that art was once my refuge before it became my profession. A place of curiosity. Of simply being. Somewhere along the way, productivity began to overshadow that softness - and I’ve been gently finding my way back to it.

Not backwards in regression.
But backwards in remembering.

Back to the roots of why I began.
Forward into who I am becoming.

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This new piece grew from that in-between space.

It speaks of a place once called home - safe, warm, familiar - yet slowly outgrown. Of stepping onto an uncertain path with trust rather than certainty. Of allowing the meaning of “home” to expand.

The places we leave remain part of us. We carry their imprint, even as we make space for new light.

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If you’re in a season of change too - especially as a creative - I’ve filmed a Youtube video around the process of this piece. I hope the video feels like company rather than instruction. A slower space to sit with your own thoughts.

You can watch the full process here:

YouTube has unexpectedly become a place of creative growth for me - somewhere I can share not just finished work, but the evolution behind it. Every view, comment, and quiet presence over there genuinely allows me to keep creating in this softer, more intentional way.

Thank you for being part of this little corner of the internet. Whether you read, watch, comment, or simply sit alongside the work - it means more than you know and I can’t wait to keep walking this trail with you all.

With love,
Chiara x