I have been living my dream of being an artist and I have a wonderful art studio which is large and bright and has lots of space to be creative. I have been painting for over 20 years, however just recently I wasn’t really feeling very happy or fulfilled with the art I was creating and I was struggling to find new inspiration and ideas even though I am surrounded by beautiful nature. I tried many things, like simplifying my work to become more abstract, changing the colour palette from my usual colours, and trying to ‘let go’ a bit more to become a bit looser whilst trying to shake off some of my Fine Art training. Painting had become a big effort and although I like to make a daily connection with my studio my I would find myself procrastinating to avoid the moment of entry due to these creative blocks I was having. In fact I would even do the ‘chores’ in order to delay that moment a bit longer and I was definitely feeling a little stressed and very un-centred.
I then made a chance discovery, something called Intuitive Art or Intuitive Process Painting. It is an expressive method of creating art whereby you begin with some meditation to clear the mind, say some mantras, do a bit of yoga, play some music, light some inscense and then allow yourself to be free with the paint on the canvas using your hands, feet, and anything but a paintbrush! There are no rules, no expected outcome, no ego to create blocks whilst thinking ‘it should look like this or like that’, or ‘a certain standard is expected of me’, or ‘I need to be able to sell it!’ You just let your intuition guide you.
It was like being a child again as I used various tools for mark making, experimenting with colours and shapes. It was so exciting to watch the painting take its own course and direction over a few days, never knowing where things would go. As the daily layering process continually changed the direction of the painting until finally my intuition told me it was now complete.