Thoughts on Inspiration

My husband wants me to focus on my sports illustrations, while I love doing them, the moody artist in me is not inspired to do them at this time. Which led me to think about inspiration.
This painting was done in a figure drawing class I took at a local community college. I wasn't inspired to do it, Matt wasn't my muse, I was required to participate. The funny thing is when I started to paint, slowly all the other students stopped working on their paintings and started to gather around me and my painting. Being an artist, it made me very uncomfortable. Even the instructor gathered round and started teaching the students while I painted. But the gist of the story is, I wasn't inspired going into it.
This painting I felt inspired to do. It was for a contest and I ended up with absolutely no feedback whatsoever. I still like this picture, want to get in there and darken my shadows some, but I love the juxtaposition of the two swan, the tranquility of the one with the action of the other. Plus, I truly enjoyed drawing and painting this one.

The idea of inspiration started because I have been very drawn into my garden this year (as I'm sure you can tell by the multitudes of pictures) I told my husband that I would love to start doing botanical paintings of the flowers and other plants that I have started from seed or just tend to in my little corner of heaven.

When I was graduating from high school I was very impressed with Monet. I loved the color palette he used and the joie de vivre and freedom of his style. I would love to someday explore the play of light and atmosphere on the objects I choose to paint but for now I just want to do studies of the plants I have become enamored by, they have become my muses.

So what role does inspiration play in your creativity? Does inspiration trump skill, skill trump inspiration or are both integral to the process and the result? (And yes, I really do ponder on these topics while I clean mac and cheese off the boy's chin or change poopy diapers!!)