Painting With an Open Heart
The fruits of my open-hearted day of paint
This Sunday I cleared away all obligations for the day, eschewed social media and turned off my phone and turned on the music – this day I felt like painting loose and free. Most of my painting these days are landscapes – beautiful scenes of the Ranch and surrounds but they can get a little tight- but this day I had a strong urge to do a soul painting. I wanted a canvas big enough that I had to use my whole body and not just my wrist to paint. I wanted to start painting and not know where I was going. Like a Sunday drive wandering with no destination in mind – I would know where I was when I got there. I had been scrolling through the painter Flora Bowley’s website earlier in the week, she had some “how to start a painting” ideas and the one that caught my fancy was to fill your canvas with intentions- and so I did. The photo below shows my start. While I was making my list of words a line from one of my favorite Mary Oliver poems popped in my head – the second photo shows “ What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” in red.
Now my canvas was filled with good juju and ready to build my painting. The idea of a seed and sprout emerging came to mind as a powerful symbol so I let my paint move in that direction. I filled in blocks of color and layered and dripped and layered some more. Finally as my brush slowed on this Sunday drive of a painting I decided I wanted to bring a snippet of the Mary Oliver poem back to the front. Once that was placed I knew I had arrived – a painting straight from the heart! What a wonderful day.
I hope I can share this soulful, open-hearted style of painting with people in person soon – I’m thinking about Open HeART Parties in gardens and backyards and barns….what do you think? Want to join me? Let me know your thoughts….more to come – this journey is just beginning!
Leslie
Yes, I want to join you. I was feeling compelled to play with color on Saturday and started to collage – but my pieces were too small for my expression – I decided to open the coloring book that was given to me at Christmas and colored for a bit – but that too was contained. In the end, resting and dreaming on the sunny deck was how I spent the afternoon hours.
lisathorpeartist
I’m thinking painting party! Let’s do it more details to follow-
Laura Thorpe
Oh, Lisa! I love this painting and the way you describe your process here. It resonates with the possibilities of your current art explorations, and the openness with which you are stepping into some uncharted territory in your journey as an artist who works for her art and “arts” for her work. Keep on keeping on. I think you are onto something here! Can’t wait to see where your artist’s footprints lead you next!
Judy Markoff
Glad Flora Bowley inspired you…I thought she would…I’m also a big fan of Mary Oliver…fun chatting with you last week…..Judy Markoff