Author: Alison Hazel   –   Published: February 2026

🧡 More on Living a Creative Life

Some of my gentle deas and practices for living your life with a “create first” mindset to help you, as a hobby artist, keep going.

 

• What I learned as a hobby artist this year
• Third Age art for women
• Daily art practice
• Art for self-care

Quiet Support

Just What You Need

Many artists, and hobby artists, live with a quiet tension. There is the work you do to pay the bills and the work you feel called to make. It can seem as though one takes from the other, leaving your art squeezed into spare moments.

But what if that is not the full story? What if your day job is not blocking your creativity at all, but quietly supporting it?

Seen another way, the work that sustains you, may already be giving your art, and hobby art, the safety and space it needs to exist.

 

A Kinder Way to See Your Day Job

You are Not Your Job

Your day job is not the enemy of your art. It can be a quiet supporter, much like a modern patron.

It pays the bills, keeps life steady and gives you room to create without constant worry. You are not your job. You are an artist who happens to have one.

Your Job as a Modern Patron

Reality

A day job provides material support so you can follow your creative path. Whether your art is music, theatre, visual arts, dance or crafts like pottery, weaving or crochet, your work allows you to keep creating while still meeting your basic needs.

This kind of support may not look glamorous, but it matters.

Artists Have Always Been Supported

Patronage

It seems that artists have rarely created in isolation.

Vincent

Vincent van Gogh was supported throughout his life by his younger brother Theo. Theo helped with money, paid for materials and offered constant encouragement through letters.

He believed in Vincent long before the rest of the world did. That steady support from his brother allowed Vincent to keep painting through hardship and doubt.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo also benefited from support early in his life. As a teenager, he was taken into the household of the Medici family in Florence.

They gave him a place to live, access to learning and freedom from the struggle of daily survival. That breathing room allowed his talent to grow.

Support has always shaped art, even when it is quiet or unseen.

Letting Go of Resentment

Your Energy

Instead of resenting your day job, you might try to see it as something which helps your art exist. If it feeds you and keeps you housed, it is already doing important work.

This shift of perspective does not mean loving your job. It simply means acknowledging exactly what it provides.

If you are able, a job which leaves you some energy is helpful. Something you can do without carrying it home in your head or fielding phone calls, emails and texts after hours.

Even demanding work can still serve to support you during certain seasons of your life.

Making Time Where You Can

Small Moments

There is nothing new or clever here. These are small, ordinary ways to stay connected to your art.

An hour in the morning before work can be surprisingly productive.

Lunchtime may become a small creative pocket, even if it is just sketching or writing a few lines.

In the evening, after your family time, even thirty to sixty minutes can be enough.

On weekends, you might protect a few focused hours for yourself and for your art.

Small moments matter. They add up over time.

How This Looks for Me

Four Days

I work four days a week and have three days off. I try to focus on my hobby art on my days off, but I also take my sketchbook to work. I draw during lunch and jot ideas down as they come.

I eke out some small moments, but they keep me connected to the larger work I am doing and visualizing.

I also carry a small A6 field notebook for thoughts and ideas because inspiration rarely arrives on schedule.

Carry Your Art with You

In Your Bag

You do not need much. A sketchbook, a pencil and an eraser are enough. You do not have to finish anything in one sitting. Just capturing ideas as they arrive keeps your creative thread alive.

A Question to Sit With

Balance

What if your job already supports your art more than you realize?

This simple question can soften how you see your days at the coal face and help you notice the quiet ways in which your life already makes room for creativity.

Overarch

Next Steps

Your day job does not cancel out your art. Every small moment you give to creativity counts.

Art can be a form of self-care, a quiet practice that steadies you and brings you back to yourself. Through sketchbooks and journaling, hobby art and simple creative rituals, you stay connected to the creative life you are building.

Whether your art is an expression of faith through Christian art or a small daily practice that fits into ordinary days, it all matters.

Be kind to yourself, appreciate the work that feeds you and keep making space for your art.

Over time, this steady balance becomes its own quiet devotion, and your creativity grows in the space you allow it.

Author Bio: Alison Hazel

Alison Hazel is a hobby artist and she shares her ongoing journey about becoming an artist later in life. She creates simple art that anyone can make. She hopes to inspire you to reach your creative potential in the area that suits you. Read more about Alison’s story. Get her newsletter.