8 Lessons Oil Painting Taught Me About Sustainability

Thoughts about creativity’s impact on systemic design thinking — with a cup of coffee in hand

Art will ultimately solve the climate crisis. Not only does creativity inspire, but climate change is bottom line, a “design issue,” as inventor Neri Oxman says. In my work in food systems sustainability, it’s imperative to zoom out and to understand the broader “canvas” of any given supply chain and sector, and to not simply focus on one plant or one farm… but what does that have to do with art?

The past few months, I’ve been taking an art class in Washington, DC: oil painting. The journey has taught me about patience, ownership, and the value of persistence. Each completed oil painting (like what’s pictured) took more than 14 hours of work. While the class has now ended, it has profoundly affected the way that I view the world. This article is my attempt to bridge 8 unique lessons in oil painting with sustainability thinking at the canvas or systems level. In art and in sustainability, flexing creativity is fundamental. These views are not a reflection of my employer.

1. Trust and experiment with the mediums

Firstly, is it ironic or literally toxic to associate oil painting with sustainability? Perhaps in some ways, one could argue that. However, oil painting lasts a lifetime. There’s something to be said about longevity, and while I haven’t researched life cycle assessments (LCAs) of various artistic mediums, it’s easy to compare the principles of sustainability-related finance here. Oil painting materials, like sustainability inputs, usually require significant up-front costs that are shouldered by the participant (e.g., the farmer, or the painter).

Yes, it was painful to bear the costs of my newfound oil painting hobby in the beginning, however, it soon became obvious that the quality of the art materials directly correlated with the quality of the painting (e.g., “you get what you pay for”/ cheaper materials meant a steeper learning curve and cheaper results). Additionally, the ROI that I received after the initial investment was ten-fold. This ROI, arriving after receiving instruction on how to properly use the painting materials/how to paint (see #4), will last a lifetime.

In sustainability terms, farmers must not only receive quality inputs, but ideally also receive adequate technical training to adequately garner the benefits from said inputs. In terms of instruction, the rules of painting/design/art are universal, just like conservation practices/approaches. During or after technical training, artists, or farmers, can build off of rules or frameworks to create their own masterpieces.

Even when painting the same still life and following the “rules,” no two paintings ever look exactly the same, just as no two coffee or cocoa farms ever look exactly the same, and this is the beauty.

2. Paint the scene with realism

To master still life paintings, the student paints exactly what the eyes see, not what’s in the imagination. Ironically, this can be extremely tough; many of us, artists, or not, like to embellish the truth or to hide our shortcomings — to brush over imperfection. But painting anything other than reality would not be a classical still life. One has to establish a “foundation of truth” to get to the goal. This concept can be equated to sustainability data, or sustainable project management. What is the real situation in the landscape? The reality on the ground? What is the reality in the still life? Where are the cracks in the object, where is the shadow? Paint those. Mark those. Capture those. They will add to the holistic picture. Company: Share your carbon emissions. Share your baseline. Be transparent about where you need to improve. Realism is honest.

3. Back up to see the bigger canvas

It’s so easy to be inches away from an oil painting and hyper-focused on details of one object, one section, one color, one brush. It almost becomes a rabbit hole of artistic obsession. In oil painting class, the teachers would frequently advise us students to “back up” and to view the painting from feet away, or from a completely different angle, like placing the painting on the floor, in sunlight, or at 45 degrees. Only when we backed up and observed the painting could we see areas that needed improvement, often minuscule touches. This concept can be applied again to a systems approach to sustainability. It’s never one plant, one farmer, one truck, one company, that maintains the balance, but rather the entirety of the system that works together — a diverse mosaic or a complex canvas. (To learn more about systemic design, please visit the Design Council.)

4. Learn from masters and mentors

Successful folk often state that they simply “stand on the shoulders of giants.” That they are a combination of the wisdom of those that come before them. Personally, I would never have learned oil painting were it not from my teachers – masters of the craft. In sustainability it’s the same. Colleagues and businesses are all learning from each other, copying from each other, competing with each other, pushing each other. Yet this lesson can also be approached from another angle: that the ultimate master and mentor is human nature herself. As I studied in graduate school via biomimicry, nature has already tested 4.5 billion years of tried-and-true R&D, so why not study from the indelible master, nature?

5. If you make a mistake, give it air

Mistakes happen, in business and in life. Oil painting suggests that if you let the mistake dry or literally wait until the next class, you can paint over it and correct it in the future. It’s better not to approach the error when it’s extremely fresh and wet, even if you are tempted to… and to let it dry a bit. Don’t let a mistake fester, no, but literally and figuratively give it some air. As authors write in “You’re It: Crisis, Change, and How to Lead When It Matters Most,” use the “take a walk in the woods” methodology.

6. Have patience; beautiful design bends time

Sustainability is a long game. Full stop. Similarly, completing an oil painting, as I wrote in the beginning, takes patience. Huge amounts of patience. It’s a step-wise approach that requires first painting the background (understanding the landscape or the canvas (#2), and then covering large areas of shadow and also light, then, repeatedly backing up (#3), and only at the very end, adding highlights, flecks of where the sunlight or the candlelight dances across the objects in the scene. Working in sustainability can feel like a lot of shadow, but the highlights always sneak through. Layers and layers and layers of light and dark paint are required to pull together a successful masterpiece, and layers and layers of layers of stakeholders (including nature) are required for strong sustainable systems. We are never alone.

7. Remember to clean your brushes and believe in rebuilding after “ruin”

After my first oil painting class, I ruined one of the most beautiful brushes that I had. I wasn’t yet adept at washing. The brush stiffened from leftover paint residue and was pronounced “ruined” by one of my teachers. Resigned to donating the brush to the school in case something could be salvaged, I trudged home. It seemed like a lost cause. When I returned to class a few days later, the teacher presented my brush, looking good as new. He had used a powerful cleaning agent to loosen the bristles. This lesson obviously threw into sharp relief that relationships are everything, and that sometimes when things are pronounced “ruined,” they CAN be fixed and re-entered into a circular system. Reduce, reuse, recycle at its most basic.

8. Don’t make major edits at the 24th hour

As alluded to in #6, neither oil painting or sustainable systems change can be rushed. While we must feel the urgency of how dire the human situation is with regards to climate change, acting hastily and haphazardly will simply not help us. What IS possible, is the onus to take the first huge step. To say “yes” to creating a masterpiece. To investing in/buying the canvas, to learning the rules of art and design, to learning from masters, and then, using creative license to dream and reflect the reality of this beautiful planet. And when the art or sustainability project is nearing its finale, to trust that it is completed. Knowing when to put the paintbrush down. And again, like in #3, to look at the entire canvas and to try, try again, tomorrow. To trust and try again.

How have your personal hobbies shaped your career mindset? Please share in the comments below. Thank you for reading.