When I started my second painting at the Sacred Marks retreat with Tracy Verdugo, my intention was different to the first painting – I wanted to go into this new piece of artwork with a focus on painting one of the statues that inspired me near where we were staying.
Around the corner, was this beautiful entrance way to a private home that had a giant Buddha fountain in it. Everyday, we walked passed this little sanctuary and everyday, we felt the calm and tranquility this space was generating. The statue, surrounded by nature, lots of pink bouganvillea and the quiet sound of water flowing oozed completeness. The words “Hidden Paradise” that were printed on the door behind it were even more mysterious. I really wanted to paint this Buddha into one of my artworks.
We started our second canvas a little differently, where we laid down words from a poem we had written earlier that day. I decided to write across my whole canvas, covering the first layer entirely with words. Words that had good energy about how I was feeling in this beautiful place.
The first layer of poetry
When getting ready to apply paint and ink to the next layer, I had originally wanted to capture the beautiful pink bougainvillea and the lush green that surrounded the statue. Instead, I went with my instincts and added a light blue, speckles of gold flowed onto the canvas in a side to side motion which created a feeling of water and flow.
I felt called to add words with my paintbrush and scratch lotus designs into the paint as it started to dry.
Below is a close up of a section of the painting where I stamped a lotus shaped stamp I had made out of scratch foam board. I loved how this pink (it looks a little reddy in the image below) popped out against the blue. Pink and blue signifies partnership and at this moment, I felt connected to this painting, aligned in its process.
It took me while before I found the courage to start the buddha. I loved this background so much, that I did feel a sense of “what if” as I pondered the next steps. I stood there for a while gazing at my painting in these beautiful surroundings. Meditating on the colours and connecting further. I started to see the Buddha head appear on the canvas in my minds eye so with a dark watercolour pencil, I went for it! I focused more on light and shadow, rather than drawing a “Buddha face”, this really helped me create from my right side of the brain more and not think too much about what it was I was drawing.
The face started to emerge and take shape and I wanted to express the water fountain feature here also, so I started to add this to the head so it flowed down. Just like one of the meditations in my Colour Energy Workshop where we focus on energy flowing out of our crown chakra like a fountain, I felt the creative energy flow as I painted these light expressive strokes.
When writing this post today, I noticed that I had not actually taken any ‘work in progress’ photos of the Buddha head and remember being in such a flow, that this was completely forgotten. I was completely in my element, connected with this.
Below is the final painting, standing in our sanctuary of creativity. I feel so at peace and calm when I look at this and am excited to hang it in my new art studio gallery here in Spain.
Such a beautiful first week we had in Bali with Tracy and all of the other creative souls. Here is the photo of us all at the end of this day with our creations. Such connection. Such colour. I love that some of us have our toes in the water and lots of smiles all round.
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