I am always delighted to discover a new edition of Mslexia magazine on my doormat (although this month’s cover artwork on the theme of monsters of the mind is rather disturbing: take a look at http://mslexia.co.uk/). Mslexia contains intelligent and thought-provoking articles for women who write, and I always find at least one takeaway concept within the pages.

This month, it was a little news piece that caught my attention, entitled, ‘Art stimulates writing brain’. It reports on scientific research that has revealed a link between viewing artworks and being inspired to write. The journal Brain and Cognition published an analysis by researchers at the University of Toronto that showed that ‘viewing paintings not only “switched on” the visual cortex, but also those parts of the brain linked to inner thoughts and emotions, movement regulation, and learning’ (source: Psychology Today). In addition, the Emory University School of Medicine based in Atlanta published findings that the brain is better stimulated by paintings than photographs.

With the function of the brain in mind, author Susan Reynolds recommends that writers conduct ‘stimulation prepping’ before writing, ‘to activate connections between the visual and verbal parts of the brain’, in her excellent guide Fire Up Your Writing Brain: How to Use Proven Neuroscience to Become a More Creative, Productive, and Successful Writer (source: Mslexia, March 2016).

Not only is this a sensible and worthwhile activity, but it is immensely enjoyable. In fact, without ever understanding the science behind it, I have been doing this exercise for years. I have long been inspired by paintings, and whenever I write a new book I research artists from the setting and whose works depict the setting. For The Echoes of Love, that saw me immersed in the Venetian school of Renaissance Painting; for my latest book Masquerade, in which Surrealism is a key theme, I often looked at works by Dalí, Picasso and Miró before writing.

Viewing a painting online is one thing; seeing it in person is quite another. Whenever I get the chance, I like to go to an art gallery. I love the serene calm there, the echoing white rooms, the smell of oil on canvas, the vibrant colours. I could quite happily spend an hour or more sitting on a bench before a great artwork, lost in the scene. My mind relaxes, synapses fire and ideas flood me. Sometimes a person in a painting inspires a character; sometimes a landscape inspires a setting – often, though, it is the nature of the art itself that makes me want to write and write.

I wonder whether the connection exists the other way around: whether an artist finds inspiration from poetry and prose? I would like to think so, because I believethat art fuels art, and at heart each artist, whatever their medium, is the same: a sensitive soul who longs to create and share their vision of the world.