Imagine creating amazing art, step-by-step, in this 5 Module online course delivered weekly over 5 weeks where you’ll learn to believe and trust in yourself, so you can create art with confidence, deeply explore and experiment, and embrace the unknown.


This is for artists of all levels, whether you’re at the beginning of your artist’s journey, coming back to your art after years of not painting or you’re a seasoned professional.

Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU JOIN TODAY:


  • Create amazing art in this 5 Module abstract painting course that is delivered weekly over 5 weeks. In The Artist’s Journey course, you’ll learn to believe and trust in yourself, so you can create art with confidence, deeply explore and experiment, and embrace the unknown. This is how you create astonishing art.


  • Join our fabulous private Facebook Community where the excitement happens: the exchange of ideas, inspiration, encouragement and friendships flourish in this wondrous, dynamic community of artists.

Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

WHAT THE ARTIST’S JOURNEY CAN DO FOR YOU AND YOUR ART

Teresa Pisani




Teresa has experienced a turning point in her art.


“The Artist’s Journey” after 50 years of painting, was the turning point in my work, I have never felt such enthusiasm with my work.

Thank you Nancy for your truly enlightening words and videos, every artist whether debutante or established should know about your teachings.




Christine Scurr




Chrissy now understand the path to her best work


Nancy gives the gift of work with initiative abstract art, moving through fear and into the present moment with joyful experimentation. I now understand the path to my best work, to be able to paint with an expressive aliveness, and am deeply grateful for Nancy's genuine care and individual attention. The content is presented sincerely and simply, and is deeply motivating.



Vera V. Tchikovani,

San Francisco, CA, Artist's Journey®, Course Alumna


Vera took her painting to a new level


Nancy, you are full of life and have deep understanding of the "other." You are a fantastic teacher. Your lessons are so intelligently put together! You not only provided invaluable information, you opened doors to a new level in painting and led us through with your encouragement & belief that we can do it. You made it possible for us to venture in new territory & helped us through it!




“In the middle of the road of my life

I awoke in a dark wood

Where the true way

Was wholly lost.”

Do you ever feel that way?


Dante Alighieri wrote those words over 600 years ago, yet they could have been written today by painters like you and me.


I remember as a child, I would sit in front of two Rembrandt reproductions that hung in the living room of my childhood home in Arkansas. For hours, I’d get lost looking at them: Young Woman with a Broom and The Man with the Golden Helmet.


As I looked into the sitters’ eyes, I imagined their personalities. What would they say if they stepped out of the paintings and sat down on the floor next to me? What were they like? I imagined playing with them and listening to them tell me stories about their lives.


I dreamt of being an artist for as long as I can remember.


But the swirl of life’s currents swept me away from that dream. I explored drama, debate, writing, biology, and chemistry. I became a psychiatrist. But then one day, that long-ago fascination with art resurfaced out of the depths.

At 36, I was brought to tears when I finally saw original Rembrandt drawings while on a painting trip in southern France. They were so alive, the people in those renderings reaching out to me across the gulf of the past.

That aliveness is what I’ve always loved about painting — yet it can get lost along the way.

So many painters are filled with self-doubt. They question their talent. Creation becomes an arduous, painful task. They retreat into technique, hoping to find that one last, secret method that will finally make them “great.”

They get their work critiqued…until they can no longer paint without a voice in their heads picking apart everything they do.

They compare themselves to other painters, and always seem to find themselves coming up short.

Along the way, their work becomes “dry.” Dead. Like a butterfly pinned to a board. Beautiful — but lifeless.

Do you ever feel that way about your work?

It’s a terrible place to be. To love something — painting — but to find it so painful. To feel lost, wanting to express yourself but not knowing how. To feel like nothing you create is really you.


You yearn for something more. To create. To feel alive.


Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

Does any of this sound like you?


  • You want to find yourself and your style, but you don’t believe in yourself enough to do that. When you paint, your inner voice never stops self-critiquing, making it impossible for creativity to flow.
  • When you do paint something that feels right, you end up repeating it until you feel stagnant. How do you find your style without being repetitive?
  • You secretly fear that you’re not a “real” artist. You feel like a fraud, because you didn’t go to art school, you gave up your art a long time ago, or nobody believed in you when you were growing up. You scroll past artists on Instagram and Pinterest and feel like you’re not a “real” artist like them — and you don’t know how to be.
  • You enjoy starting paintings but feel anxious about finishing them.
  • You feel like your paintings lack a certain rawness and aliveness, and you’ve lost interest in your art. And when you lose that, you feel like you’ve lost a part of yourself. You’re afraid you’ll never reach the full expression and potential of who you are with your art.
  • You replicate other artists’ work and never feel like you’re expressing your own vision.
  • Something’s just missing from your art. You wonder if it’s technique, but no matter how much you learn…you’re still never happy with your paintings.

Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

What’s missing in all of these problems is YOU. Your soul and aliveness coming through in your art.


I would know, because I used to be the same way.

For years, I painted figures and landscapes that were beautiful, technically excellent, and got into solo shows and galleries…but they were predictable. I became bored and uninspired. I never surprised myself.


I wanted wonder and joy. I wanted magic! I wanted to fall in love with painting again.

So I did.

I started experimenting, exploring, and risking. I learned to trust myself. I painted like I was on fire!

The work poured out of me — I moved from force into flow.

I learned that I had to be willing to answer the call to step into the unknown, no matter how scary that might be. I left the dark wood and stepped into the sunlit clearing of my true self, my creativity.

You can do that, too.


Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

Imagine Being Excited to Paint Again!


Imagine waking up every day and feeling excited to show up to the studio and explore and experiment.

Every time you pick up the brush, you hear an internal voice that says: “I can do this, I will do this”. Hours go by as the work pours out of you. You feel like a child again — before the doubting voices and criticism got to you.

You create paintings that surprise and delight you. You’re free of self-judgement and the constant questioning of “am I good enough?” You say “yes” to taking the plunge into facing your fears and creating fully.


And as you experiment, you develop your own voice, signature, and lexicon — your own unique, personal, gestural expression. You believe in and trust yourself as an artist.

Every day, when you step back from the easel and look at the day’s work, you feel thrilled. This. Is. It. You. The deepest, most meaningful, and full expression of you.

You even revel in the “ugly” paintings, because it’s all part of stepping into the not knowing: the terra incognita of your creativity and flow.

That’s where the magic is: the unknown.


Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

How Do You Get Unstuck, So You Can Create Art with Confidence?


The problem is it’s so hard to get to the magic and flow.

And the reason is that so many artists are consumed by the belief that if they just learn more and more technique, they’ll be a great artist. But you know what? Technique is important…but it won’t make you a great artist.

In fact, if you get too wrapped up in technique, you can find yourself getting further and further away from your fullest, deepest, most authentic expression.

The issue is that when you decide you want to invest in yourself as a painter, many of the books and courses out there focus on technique and giving you critiques. And that’s fine, to a point. But once you have the essentials mastered, getting critiqued can actually dampen your creativity. You end up with an inner voice providing running commentary with your every brushstroke.


You make yourself small, so you can fit into the narrow confines of how you’re “supposed” to paint.

Artists grip onto technique because of the deep-seated fear that they don’t really know what they’re doing. That they’re not enough.

But the truth is this: if you’re not happy with your painting, no one can “fix” it for you with a single solution or recipe they give you.

They can only guide you by asking questions and leading you to yourself: to that inner landscape that you want to express. Because deep down, you already know the “answer.” It only has to be revealed.

That’s what I help painters do: reveal the true self inside, so you can express that self on canvas.

Once you do that, you begin to trust yourself, which allows you to experiment and create freely, to get that “magic” you’ve been searching for, for so long.


Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

Hey there, I'm Nancy


I'm an abstract artist, bestselling & award winning author of The Artist's Journey® and The Adjacent Possible® books as well as a Stanford educated psychiatrist.

I’ve been an artist and existential psychiatrist for over 20 years and I'm passionate about creativity, aliveness, and living your most meaningful life.

I've been an abstract painter for decades. Several years ago I created a television program "Creativity & Consciousness" where I interviewed artists on their creative process. I learned that artists in every genre grapple with fear and self-doubt and that the interior landscape affects everything!

I believe that abstract painting is a powerful way of getting at meaning and that art is a mirror that reflects our lives…the canvas reflects back our feelings, moods, interior states, and life.

I've guided thousands of artists in creating their deepest, most alive and meaningful work, and I would love to be your guide, too!

Create amazing art in this 5 Module online abstract painting course. You’ll learn to believe and trust in yourself, so you can create art with confidence, deeply explore and experiment, and embrace the unknown

Trust yourself. Experiment. Create your Deepest Work.

Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

Learn Everything to Start Creating Abstract Paintings You Love

In this 5 Module online abstract painting course 

In the course, I’ll guide you to believing and trusting in yourself, so you can create art with confidence, deeply explore and experiment, and embrace the unknown. Because the unknown is where the discoveries are made and where the magic is.

If you feel lost in that dark wood, you need a guide to show you the way out. Others have been that guide for me in the past, and now I’d like to be that guide for you.


On our journey together, I’ll teach you the three secrets of the masters. The first is the “Holy Grail” of painting: the self-transformation of trusting yourself and painting every day. Once you trust yourself, you’ll be free to experiment, explore, and truly express yourself. You won’t feel bound by what you’ve created in the past or by what other people are doing.

The second two secrets are two game-changing technical concepts: composition and value. I’ve simplified these concepts down to the 90% of what is most effective in your painting, so you can stop worrying about technique and start focusing on expression.


I’ve taken years of study in both psychiatry and painting and honed that all down into the few essential things that will take your artwork forward and let you experience joy in creation again.

By the end of this course, you will know that you are an artist, and you’ll have the life of your dreams. A life of joy, self-expression, and finally reaching your full potential as an artist.


Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

What You’ll Learn


  • The one inner transformation that makes all the difference on your artist’s journey. Master this, and your procrastination and fear around painting will disappear.
  • The secret “Holy Grail” of prolific, successful artists who appear in galleries (it’s a triple threat).
  • Many ways of starting your abstract paintings, so you never spend hours staring at a blank canvas in frustration again.
  • One simple compositional constraint that works every time. Use this when you’re stuck, and you’ll quickly set the “frame” that frees you to express yourself within it.
  • A simple way to make your painting feel monumental so you can explore the power of scale in your art.
  • The value of simplifying values in a painting (believe it or not, this can be more important than color and is something all the masters are experts at).
  • How to use contrast in your paintings, so you create visual excitement, interest, and drama.
  • How to quickly fix common compositional problems, so each painting just “works” as a unified whole.
  • Considerations on finishing your paintings, so you don’t get stuck in “what now?” mode and can quickly decide when a painting is done.
  • ​And much, much more!

Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

YOU CAN ACCESS THE MODULES ON YOUR COMPUTER OR PHONE

Follow the simple, step-by-step instructions in each module, and you’ll be able to create abstract paintings that you LOVE in no time at all.


The Artist's Journey

3 Secrets of the Masters

  Module 0: Begin Here
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Module 1: Answering The Call Of Your Yearning To Create
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Module 2: First Secret Of The Masters: Trust Yourself
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Module 3: Second Secret Of The Masters: Composition
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Module 4: Third Secret Of The Masters: Value
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Module 5: Further Explorations On Your Artist’s Journey
Available in days
days after you enroll
  BONUS Videos
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Artist's Journey LIVE
Available in days
days after you enroll

Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

What You’ll Learn

Module 1: Answering The Call Of Your Yearning To Create: Map Your Way On Your Artist’s Journey


In Module 1, you’ll explore and reflect on your Big “Why” for creating, and you’ll complete The Artist’s Journey® Workbook, which will help you delve into your internal landscape. My decades in practice as an existential psychiatrist inform this work, which will help you truly express yourself in your art.


Module 2: First Secret Of The Masters: Trust Yourself & Bring Out Your Inner Greatness


In Module 2, you’ll learn the first secret of the masters: trusting yourself. This will thread through all your work as an artist and inform your ability to explore and experiment deeply in your art.


Module 3: Second Secret Of The Masters: The First Technical Game Changer: Composition


In Module 3, you’ll discover the second secret of the masters and the first technical game changer: Composition. You’ll learn to simplify composition like the masters and find that composition is ultimately intuitive. This will help you create paintings you love.


Module 4: Third Secret Of The Masters: The second technical game changer: Value


In Module 4, you’ll discover the third secret of the masters: The Value of Values. You’ll learn how value is a game-changer and how to simplify value and create value contrast that will make your paintings “pop” across the room. Value and composition are technical game-changers that make 90% of the difference in your paintings.


Module 5: Further Explorations On Your Artist’s Journey: Creativity & The Unknown


In Module 4, you’ll discover the third secret of the masters: The Value of Values. You’ll learn how value is a game-changer and how to simplify value and create value contrast that will make your paintings “pop” across the room. Value and composition are technical game-changers that make 90% of the difference in your paintings.


Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

By the End of the Course

You Will Have Completed


  • A personal vision board to explore your ongoing intentions, goals, understandings, and insights. This will help you stay true to yourself as you continue on your journey.
  • A personal art journal to experiment and take risks in, so you never feel stuck, repetitive, or bored with your art again.
  • Many painting “starts”, so you have many options to finish after the four weeks are over.
  • Hundreds of painting “maquettes” (studies/exploratory works) to draw inspiration from in the future.

The Skills You Will Master


  • Setting painting goals and intentions and refining them, so you have guideposts to guide your daily practice.​
  • Trusting yourself to find your way as you go, so you can stop worrying and free yourself up to paint intuitively.
  • Developing a personal vocabulary of mark making and imagery, so you can channel your subconscious onto the canvas with confidence.
  • Develop your 15 minute daily studio practice, so painting effortlessly becomes part of your everyday life.
  • Creating many painting “starts,” giving you a cornucopia of options to finish!
  • Creating visually exciting paintings of high contrast, so your work stands out and grabs people’s attention.
  • And much, much more …

Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call

Join Now & Receive these Exclusive Bonuses

The Artist’s Journey®: Workbook ($97 VALUE)

I want you to believe in and trust yourself. Only by trusting yourself will you be freed up to play, experiment, explore, show us what you love, and create with expressive aliveness.

Paintings that excite people show us YOU. We want to see you: your truth, your vision, your voice.

Your art is a reflection of you. It mirrors your life and what is meaningful to you. Your marks are your personal signature threading through everything you do. Value them. Trust them.

In this workbook you’ll explore your artist’s journey…where you are now, how you got here, what your dreams are, and where you want to go with your art.

The Artist’s Journey®: Vision Board ($47 VALUE)

Document your artist’s journey with the vision board. This will guide you to write down observations about your dreams/wishes/aha’s/’why’s’ as well as making note of your inner and outer resources and provisions. 

Make notes of your evolving ‘why’ for creating as well as noting difficulties, perils, intentions, aha’s and dreams. You can work with images, photos, and sketches as well as writing. 

Documenting your journey is a powerful tool for developing your studio practice with awareness and consistency. It sends a message to your unconscious that your creative life has value and visibility.

Color Secrets of the Pros Workbook
($97 VALUE)

Learn color secrets in abstract painting the pros know. Create visual impact using color contrast. Work with simplicity, constraint and experimentation.

The Artist’s Journey® Community
($997 VALUE)

Our fabulous private Facebook Community is where the excitement happens: the exchange of ideas, inspiration, encouragement and friendships flourish in this wondrous, dynamic community of artists.  

CREATE ABSTRACT PAINTINGS YOU LOVE!

You’ve got paintings inside you waiting to be expressed. It’s time to finally create the art of your dreams and say yes to your artist’s journey. This is a “why-to, not a how-to” book. It’s not about technique, it’s about the inner psychological work of moving closer and closer to your deepest, most authentic self expression.

GET STARTED NOW!


Start Painting in 2024!

The Artist's Journey®: Course

3 Secrets Of The Masters

Nancy Hillis, M.D.

Nancy Hillis, M.D.

$697

Experimenting With Color

Secrets to Powerful, Potent Color in Your Paintings

Nancy Hillis, M.D.

Nancy Hillis, M.D.

$397

Activating The Canvas

Breathe Life Into Your Art By Expressing You

Nancy Hillis, M.D.

Nancy Hillis, M.D.

$247

A Personal Note To You


How much time does this take? I’m not sure I have enough time.

If you’re like me and the thousands of artists I’ve worked with, painting is a central part of your identity.

It’s you.

Which makes it all the more painful when you feel so removed from the process.

Maybe you feel tired of copying others or repeating yourself. Maybe your art feels dead or formulaic or uninspiring to you.

You KNOW you have more inside you, and if you don’t express it, you’ll feel like you cheated yourself out of something important, meaningful, and vital to you.

You’ll be missing a part of yourself.

If you avoid the call of your art, if you procrastinate, if you feel like you have more inside you but don’t know how to access and express that inner landscape…isn’t it time to fix that now?You’ll be missing a part of yourself.

How much longer are you willing to be cut off from this essential part of who you are?

In just five weeks, you can learn to create abstract paintings you LOVE.

Paintings that express your truest, deepest self. You can experience spontaneous, joyous creation free of fear, anxiety, and perfectionism.

You can create art you LOVE again.

All it takes is deciding that you — and the art inside you — are worth it.

Questions? Click Here To Book a Clarity Call