How This Painter Changed My Perspective on Creativity and Myself

5 lessons in improvisation, expertise and following your impulse

Red Balloon (1922) by Paul Klee. Oil and oil transfer drawing on chalk-primed gauze, mounted on board. 31.7 × 31.1 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, U.S. Image Source

I have been thinking recently about what it means to unlearn the things we believe we know. Knowledge and expertise offer stability, like a fortress, but sometimes we have to break holes in the walls to save us from getting trapped inside.

Creativity is nearly always struggling with this conflict: how to learn, improve and perfect without getting stuck in habits that sooner or later restrict us.

When I feel like I need a dose of re-education, I turn back to the artist Paul Klee. He was a painter who — to my eyes — always worked on the cusp of what he did not know.

It was an approach that led to a highly distinctive style that nonetheless had a thousand different facets. Taken as a whole, his paintings constitute a project of discovery.

Here are 5 lessons from Klee that have changed my perspective on creativity and, ultimately, myself.

1. Stay receptive and undogmatic

Take a moment to look down the following list. It gives a snapshot of the materials that Klee used to create his paintings (each item refers to the combination of materials used in an individual work):

• oil, the lines imprinted, points imprinted in white and subsequently over-painted, on casein colour on canvas mounted on canvas stretcher
• oil and watercolour on oil ground on gauze on cardboard, nailed to canvas stretcher
• watercolour, ink and pencil on paper, cut up and re-combined with silver paper, framed in ink, on cardboard
• oil and gouache on newspaper on jute on canvas stretcher
• oil scratch drawing on cardboard, painted on the reverse and over-painted in white

This list highlights Klee’s remarkable embrace of a wide range of artistic methods, often blending them in unconventional ways.

To me, this spontaneity is particularly striking. It underscores the value of staying flexible, receptive and undogmatic, remaining open to fresh approaches. When most artists stick to a single medium like oil…