Preface
As a contemporary artist, this short manifesto is meant to summarize some of my beliefs about creativity in the visual arts.  These are principles I follow generally and the points I listed are not meant to be a formula or recipe for creating masterpieces.  They are just reminders for myself so as to avoid the usual pitfalls artists encounter.

Having found these principles useful in my career as a professional artist for over thirty years, I decided to share them with other interested artists and students.

I believe this list is open for debate and I invite all and sundry to discuss the issues raised.  Ultimately my philosophy is for my own use and it may be meaningless for anybody else.

So, here are my guidelines I follow:

Capture the essentials and ignore the insignificant
Try to capture the essential elements of a visual experience. Ignore the superfluous bits and eliminate unnecessary details.  Focus on the critical aspects of the subject and capture only the significant and lasting characteristics.

Never compete with the camera
Reproducing accurately what the eye sees is not necessarily artistic creativity.  Technical proficiency may only produce an impressive illustration.  A musical composer does not merely reproduce the sounds heard in nature, but creates a composition from his heart.

Be interested in only creating images which reflect your subjective response to places, or express your feelings and capture the mood of being there.

Abstract art is treated like music
Good abstract painters use the same basic principles as composers of music -- balanced composition, integrity, mood, tone,  colour, texture, rhythm, harmony, contrast, balance, tension, counterpoint and so on.  The objective is the same: creating a mood, arousing a feeling, stirring the emotions.

Venture beyond the comfort zone
Do not be content to settle into a commercially successful and 'easy' style.  Refuse to limit your output to 'much of the same'  thus avoiding the use of a tired old formula.  Chose to move beyond the safe comfort zone.  Search for variety, revel in the excitement of discovering something new and unfamiliar; and also learn to experiment with future possibilities.

Express the joy for living
Let colour help express the thrill of being alive.  Access your sacred gift of intuition and honour your creative spirit. Then you will have a wonderful opportunity  to create meaningful and optimistic images to make people happy.

For me as an artist the real achievement is when people tell me that my artworks speak to them, when my creations touch their hearts and spirit.  When my paintings wash away the sweat and dust of their stressful working days, I am happy.

The essential ingredient
As my abstract artist friend Ted Knerr reminded me, there is another crucial element to creativity.  This is not something you can just conjure up from your head.  To paraphrase him: real art comes from inspiration, and valid art-appreciation comes first from a gut reaction which in turn comes from one's spiritual condition.

Great art can come from the uneducated but quietly enlightened, and bad art from the highly trained but disconnected from the soul; so education can be a plus or a minus, but soul connection is an indispensable prerequisite for an artist's creativity.

See also my ideas on:

Artistic influences
Artworks in interior design - the final touch
My philosophy