37. Six Steps For Creating With Spirit

R-I-D-E, Write & Create

Over my years of Plein-Air Painting I have noticed that when you put your attention on a scene or an object, such as painting a stream, your awareness  grows over time and that place or object reveals it's hidden depths. It makes you feel connected to everything you see. To facilitate such experiences I came up with a system that not only helps you grow in your awareness but also keeps a record for you to see your growth. 

 This system works not only for visual artists but for any creative endeavor you undertake. Please answer the questions below in your own way on this paper or in a sketch book.

1. Red Dot Your Feelings: State how you feel right now at the start of your creative endeavor. Pretend that you are a red dot on a map of the Mall. Center yourself on your own Red Dot. What are you feeling right now? Be present to yourself and to whatever you envision as a Higher Power. Are you happy, sad, tired, anxious, etc.? Express to that Higher Power what you are feeling right now. Your goal here is to be real and honest.

 2. Inquire:  How am I experiencing that Spirit or Power right now in this place? Do I see beauty? Is there something intriguing in the light? Do I notice anything that is unusual?

3. Dissolve Away: Is there anything you find uncomfortable about completing your creation? What do you perceive, if anything, is blocking your ability to create or paint with absolute confidence and happiness? Now just take your brush or pen and dissolve those thoughts by crossing out the words you have written below.

 4. Embrace the Spirit: Talk to your Higher Power now. Ask this power or Spirit to be with you as you create or paint today. Ask the spirit to help you create with confidence and happiness. Ask the Spirit for what ever you want from your creative endeavor.

5. Write Your Thoughts Down: Look at what you wrote above and compose a short verse, thought, or prayer that expresses points One through Four.  This written material becomes a valuable record of your feelings about your creative endeavor, which you may want to revisit.

 6. Now, start Creating: Use whatever method you prefer while noticing how you are guided by Spirit. Over time you will come to trust and communicate with your Higher Power. 

35. Light in the Redwoods

A  Redwood forest can be a cool and dark place even on a sunny day. So when the light singles out a small tree on the forest floor, it dazzles you with the contrast and captures your full attention. I recently found a very small Redwood tree that stood out and captured my attention because it was bathed in a beautiful but fleeting light. I did capture the scene in a photo and was able to finish the painting even though the light had moved on before I actually started to paint.  

The beauty of such a scene takes your mind to higher thoughts. Mine did turn to the symbolism of light. I thought the Hindu festival of Divali, which is the triumph of knowledge (light) over ignorance (darkness). I also thought of Easter.  In Easter, believers turn to Jesus as the Light of the World. In China people celebrate the lantern festival on the first full moon of the lunar year which is in February each year. The Lantern Festival began as a celebration in honor of Gautama Buddha (which means enlightened one) and has grown to celebrate the power of family. 

While painting I try and have a path for the light to travel in my painting. I am usually not thinking of it in its spiritual sense. But one thing I have noticed is that the lighter areas show up more clearly if they are standing in contrast to some dark. I do take considerable time to figure out where to place the darks. When you are out in the field the light changes frequently so you have to make up your own light or remember a lighted scene that captured your imagination. 

The light in the Redwoods reminds you of the power of light to reveal and conceal. It’s very similar to how we light up areas in our minds by putting our attention on that area. In painting, the path you make for the light can remind you that you create the light in your own life through the simple act of attention. The next time you paint, think about the light areas and dark areas and what they are revealing to your viewer. 

34. Cactus with Shadows

I found a lovely cactus with some wonderful shadows projected onto its pot.  I was actually pricked by spines while filming  this video so I was personally reminded of the symbolism of cacti. One of the spines was very thin and stayed in my body and kept hurting while I was driving home. Since we are in the beginning of Lent my thoughts gravitated to Christian symbolism.

Lent is a Christian time of penitence that signifies the Jewish and Christian references to 40 days in the desert. Our lives are like deserts during hard, dry and unfruitful times. These become the shadows of our life. Even if you are not religious, it’s a good to think about the deserts in your own life and what you learned from them. 

The shadows cast by his cactus are very intricate and beautiful. They were the first thing I was attracted to when trying to choose a painting topic. They can remind us that even though we may not like the shadows of our own life, those shadows too, can become a thing of beauty if seen in the proper light. 

So how do we relate this to painting? 

It seems to me that just like a cactus, a painting has spines. The spines of a cactus can wound you. What are the wounds in your own life that are preventing you from fully expressing yourself in your life and art? Is there something in the next 40 days that you can do to mend your wounds? The shadows projected by this cactus are gnarly and prickly but also very interesting and beautiful. Can you think of a hard time in your life that later was seen as a necessary step that added value to your life?

Spines are also like pointing fingers.You can also drive the viewer out of the painting through poor composition that leads the eyes out.  Have you included a path that can lead your viewer safely through the painting? 

An important thing to remember is that the cacti are also a source of water in the desert. Does your composition have some rest area free of the pointing fingers? These areas are like refreshing water in a desert. 

So cacti offer us a symbolic way to think about things that push people away from our paintings and those things that offer our viewers refreshment. And of course, we may not just be speaking of painting here. The shadows a cactus projects really is very interesting and beautiful and remind us of our own lives. And we are reminded too, that the natural world speaks to us very quietly but powerfully through symbol.

33. The Peace of the Deck Chairs

It’s been so warm in California that it’s hard to believe it’s winter here. The warmer weather has brought wonderful opportunities to paint outside in comfort. During one of the warm days I was able to paint a deck scene that was a quiet and peaceful still life. 

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 It’s been so warm in California that it’s hard to believe it’s winter here. The warmer weather has brought wonderful opportunities to paint outside in comfort. During one of the warm days I was able to paint a deck scene that was a quiet and peaceful still life. 

A deck with chairs can be a peaceful place to paint. It’s actually a type of still life made up of horizontal, diagonal and vertical lines. The chairs themselves are made up of many horizontal lines, which are calming in their nature. The deck adds some movement with the vertical uplifting lines of the railing. Then the tree trunks and the branches add more vertical and some diagonal lines. 

Somehow all the lines merge into a calming environment with only a pumpkin and several plants for company. Another calming attribute of the painting is that many of the tones are variations of gray or brown. The small pumpkin and several of the plants are the only objects with saturated color. 

The warm colors of the deck railing are pretty balanced with the violet colors in the deck wood and the pale greens and blues in the background. When you have warm or vibrant colors they tend to move forward and capture your attention. When you have muted color, the scene is much more calming as is evidenced by this painting.

33. The Peace of the Deck Chairs

32. Ten Blessings For You in 2015

Happy New Year 2015!

Just wanted to share with you my best wishes for a prosperous, sacred and fun New Year. Don’t forget to count your blessings and add these to your list. 

32. Ten Blessings For You in 2015