Sunflower study

Here is the quick watercolour study I did of the sunflower. I am in love with it. I cant wait to make it bigger. I loved painting it = it was a grey overcast weekend and the yellow pallete just brightened the whole room.

And this week, my little people go back to school. I'm imagining the free time now - to create and paint and contemplate intuition.

sunflower inspiration

I just wanted to share - a photo of our neighbour's sunflower. It has some friends that have yet to bloom - I'm hoping the sun lasts long enough in this short prairie summer. (I say summer, but with the chilly mornings, I'm sure that the weather could be called autumnal).


And this is one of the preliminary sketches I've done - thinking that my penchant for swirly curls and freeflowing lines might work well with this subject. It was also absolutely gorgeous, sitting outside in the sun sketching from life.

And this is from my kids - I think it might be my favourite of the lot. There is nothing better than seeing their creations.

What I'm learning

It goes without saying that this artistic journey is a learning process. But I thought I'd share the insights I gained last night as I finished my latest painting in the chakra series.

In my latest work, as I completed the petals that lie on the outside of the chakras, I got more comfortable with letting the brush go where it would. I let my hand flow and move, reacting to the space that I had to work with and the feeling in the painting of where a line should go. The result - 'quite obviously' I say to myself - were petals that I liked better. I preferred their liquid lines and open flame like appearances. I enjoyed the freedom and courage it took to let the lines appear without planning their shape. And soon, rather than starting with an image that I had to work at to make appear before me, the image was coming, flowing to my mind before I lifted the brush. But not from my imagination - I was being shown what the petal would look like before it arrived.

In the self depricating style I feel I should assume (to balance the egotistical nuances inherent in writing a blog that is accessible to the world) I feel like I should have known this all along. DUH!!!

This blog is about intuition. Before I paint, I invoke the spirit of the universe to inspire my hand and flow through my brush. All of my favourite work is done when I let go and relinquish control. I just paint or draw or write... allowing without thought for the outcome. A freedom from self and an acceptance or allowance - a surrender - that's the right word - a surrender to the artistic spirit that is moving in me.

I'm struck that I have only just now recognised this - again I might add. For I know I have thought this before. Perhaps this time, I might just remember it!!

The dilemma of balance - lucky I'm a gemini!!

I just looked at my last post - the calling to paint- and I am fascinated that as I have spent the last week or so painting, I am now feeling the call of the energy work. I dream about it and wake up slowly, remembering the details, smiling at the intimacy of the message. Go out and share the energy, heal!

It seems my heart would do both, at the same time, with equal fervency. Of course, along with healer and artist, I am also mother to three small children and partner to a beautiful tall prairie man. So, it seems juggling will be the order of the day.

Ahhh, lucky I'm a gemini and the wearing of multiple hats is something I am familiar with - something I enjoy. Got to keep it interesting, right?

The paintbrushes are calling!

I've been concentrating on the energy work side of things for the past few days - and the running around business side of things. Business cards, lists of things to do - you know, all the background stuff. My first energy treatment was last night - and it was amazing. So much energy flowing - a very powerful experience.
I came home with a big grin on my face and I began writing in my journal - what I imagine will be the basis of my thesis work. My thoughts and inklings and questions about intuition. At the moment, I'm contemplating intuition and imagination. Closely linked - and perhaps imagination is a perfect tool for intuition to communicate with us. Or with me as I am discovering. Or is it more that imagination is the wrong term - the images I see when I do energy work look a lot like my own personal daydreams - but they are different. They are messages from the ether. I dont know - dont know if I will be able to answer that question. But the exciting thing is that I'm on the right road to find out.

But what I am enjoying today is an overwhelming desire to return to my art desk. I finished my last piece about week ago... and I just have to paint. My fingers are itching. Lucky it is a cooler day outside - perfect to hangout with my paints and pencils. mmmm. I love it when the desire to create is so strong it is nearly overflowing.

Let us see what pours out!

Namaste.

Decision made

While I was really drawn to the plan to leave the painting with six petals for the manipura chakra, I couldnt do it. It was more important that this be an expression of the chakras - my own expression of how they appear to me as I paint. And to achieve that, then I needed to have the right number of petals. Otherwise, it would just be some lines and paint on some paper.

And while I was doing something else, getting into a car I think, the answer came to me. I love the way the mind will work on a problem and get back to you with an answer when you aren't thinking about it or anywhere near thinking about it. An intuitive communication - well, it sounds a lot like intuition to me.

So, I realised how I was going to add in the four other petals - and I love the way it worked. I think that future incarnations of this painting will use that same design. Now I'm trying to work out how to do the same thing for the throat chakra - vishuddha - which has sixteen petals. Trying to fit them all in makes them small and makes the chakra look busy. Time to hand that problem over to my intuition and let the creative process work it out while I'm doing something else.

Namaste

Mistake? or divine intervention?

So, I have a question ... for myself and for the ether I guess....

my current painting - It has come out different than I had planned. Do I change it or leave it?

The reason I ask is that when I paint, I invite spirit in to become manifest in my work and to express the energy of the chakras that I am painting right there on the paper. Each piece that I do has been different, moving in different directions and manifesting different characteristics - something that I am really enjoying.

The latest piece that I am doing is for a couple that I know, and the husband has some stomach issues at the moment. As I begun painting all of the chakras, the yellow chakra - manipura - that lies over the solar plexus, was a lot smaller than the others. This made me think of my friend and his ailing gut and I wondered if this was being reflected in my work. When I came back to this chakra to finish it and add the outside petals, I completed it and as soon as I lifted the brush off the page, realised that there are ten petals and I only painted six. Something I realised straightaway and yet had not seen or noticed in the time I was painting them. The question is then, do I leave them, incorrect in number but perhaps as a personal connection to their future owner - or do I fix it to keep the number of petals correct?

A very large part of me wants to fix it to keep it right, but I am very much siding with leaving it, happy at how it looks and intrigued by the error and it's connection to my friend.

And on a very interesting side note, when I googled manipura, I found a note saying:

"Anyone experiencing dysfunction of the third chakra is having difficulty obtaining or maintaining his/her own "personal power". This intuitive chakra is where we get our "gut instincts" that signal us to do or not to do something."


- perhaps this reference is a note to myself as well, that I need to develop this chakra and my intuition. Perhaps then I will know whether to do.. or to do not.

mmmm

A previously completed work with ten petals.

The latest incarnation with only six petals.