Staying open to the mystery
What the intuitive painting process reveals about presence, letting go, and the art of living.
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It starts with the swipe of a paintbrush.
With swirls of paint and scraping through layers. With dancing around the studio singing at the top of my voice while laying down some patterns and inky layers.
When the layers are too wet, when I risk making mud, I walk away for a bit. Curl up in the studio with a hot cup of strong black coffee and bury my nose in a book — right now, it’s Deborah Harkness’ A Discovery of Witches.
And then, I’m ready to paint again. I take a paintbrush dipped in black paint for a dance around the page. Add more layers of ink, skip my palette knife over the page, add more patterns, more swirls of color, and walk away once again.
When I return to the painting, my eye snags on the corner of the page. On the hint of a face peeking out through the paint.
I turn the music on, empty my mind, and give in to instinct: to draw out the image that winked at me, to respond to what was happening on the page, to letting everything else — no matter how precious — go, to remaining open to the mystery.
That’s so much like life, you know?
We show up as our messy imperfect selves, responding to the challenges and gifts that life throws our way, doing our best moment to moment.
We are allowed to change directions, to change the way we respond to challenges and situations, to try different approaches to tackle different problems.
And when we don’t like how something is working, we are free to start over. To zoom in on what feels alive and interesting and rebuild things from there.
We don’t need to have all the answers {when do we ever have them all?} and we don’t need to know the exact outcome before we commit to a course of action. We just have to show up, with our whole hearts, doing the best that we can in each moment.
As for that painting, we took a few more turns around the dance floor to end up here.
Prints of the finished painting are available via my Fine Art America store. Come take a look!
Let’s chat
I love chatting with you in the comments or via e-mail. Here are a few questions to help us get the conversation rolling:
What do you think of the way this painting evolved?
Have you tried painting intuitively? Is it a process that intrigues you?
Where are you being invited to return, to let go, or to follow the whispers of your heart?
What helps you stay open to mystery in your own creative or everyday life?
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Discovery of Witches is one of my favorite series. I've read them 3 times now, I think. But The Blackbird Oracle only once so far.
I'm always afraid I'll muddy the layers. I took a taster class by Tiare Smith a few weeks ago, and it had wet on wet layers to start with. I was amazed at how it worked out. I think minimal palette was the key though.