I was lucky enough to be featured in the Association of Animal Artist April Newsletter, speaking as an autistic artist for Autism Awareness Month <3

Can autistic people be artists? The answer, absolutely, is of course they can! There is a common belief that autistic people are not creative, but this is a huge misconception we’d like to talk about as April is Autism Awareness Month! We have many members who are autistic, or neurodivergent in some way, and their contribution to our community, and to art in general is immense.

I spoke to member Chesca from Four Paws and a Pencil about her experience as a late-diagnosed AuDHD (someone who is both autistic and adhd) artist and how her autistic traits and creativity work hand-in-hand to help her create beautiful wildlife art.

I started learning to draw during the second covid lockdown, and it quickly became my new special interest/hyperfocus! In learning to draw, I also discovered I have aphantasia (which is pretty common in autistics) and I’m partially colour blind so I started drawing in graphite because colour was just too hard! The thing with special interests though, is that they just don’t let you go. So I kept coming back to colour – I still don’t find it easy, but I still stubbornly love it!

How do your autistic special interests and hyperfocuses impact your creativity?

Horses are my lifelong autistic special interest, something I was often berated for in my youth. I actually gave up art at school because I got so much grief for only ever wanting to draw horses. When I started drawing again, horses was all I thought I’d be interested in – how wrong was I?! I suspect I’ll only ever be interested in drawing animals which is why the Association of Animal Artists is such a good fit for me; it gives me space to embrace my passion for all kinds of animals.

I think my autism is probably the biggest reason I have stuck at drawing and progressed as I have: because autistic hyperfocus tends to be all consuming, I have literally been obsessed with all things pencil for the past few years. I think it’s paid off.

I’m my own toughest critic – but being ‘hard’ on myself helps me develop my work. I think people often misunderstand my honest appraisals as negativity (and to be fair, I have had paralysing difficulties with perfectionism) – but mostly it is just me striving to always learn and be better.

I have a fascination with miniatures! I’ve discovered lots of autistic people are excited by miniature things, so maybe that’s why. People often ask me “how do you draw so small?’ – but I struggle to draw big! I was thrilled to discover that Miniature Art is a genre in it’s own right, and I have recently become a member of The Hilliard Society of Miniaturists – this year I challenged myself to draw something the size of a postage stamp! (I almost managed it – it was a few mm too big…)

This is a hard one! But I think if I had to highlight just one thing, it would be that of confidence. Like many late-diagnosed autistics, I have felt ‘wrong’ much of my life, a lot of self doubts and feelings that unless what I do is ‘perfect’, it’s no good. And that filters through into my work. It still feels like I need a lot of reassurance at times, I find it hard to believe my art is any good. And that’s not because I want people to ‘big me up’ or anything like that, it’s a genuine lack of self-belief in everything I do. Finding like-minded art communities (online! I struggle with people in person!) has been so good for me, given me so much more confidence. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I like to give it back and try to support others whenever I can. Because autistic people can be very creative, we just need that little bit extra help with our self-belief at times.

Thank you so much to the AAA for featuring me in this mini interview! I hope you enjoyed reading a little bit more about my journey with autism and art!

Creativity has been so important to me, and I feel lucky to have been supported in my journey by the amazing community of artists within both the Association of Animal Artists and the Bonny Snowdon Academy – the latter of which in particular has carried me through when my own confidence and self-belief has let me down and really shows the importance of having people in your ‘circle’ believing in you!