Forest Basin

I have discovered over the years that I love to teach and confab with other artists.  It brings me as much energy as it does the student.  Many times I learn from them how to be a better teacher, nurturer and friend.  This year I embarked on a new journey of discovery with my first workshop on Creating-Positive Energy Art.  I realized I needed to kick  it up a notch, and stretch my possibilities along with my students.

What I paint is not all that unique, but how I go about creating a painting may be.  First off I have evolved into a mark maker.  Tiny strokes off nothingness, becoming something.  It feels very magical when an image in my mind’s eye evolves into an image on canvas solely by creating small stokes of energy.

I start off remembering an event, a life circumstance or a picture; than I create a story from memories or feelings.  This becomes my story, unique to me seen through my own mind’s eye.  I hold it in my heart and then I put down my first mark.  I choose my colors by the mood that the memory brings. Slowly I add other colors usually starting from the top of my canvas and moving downward. Magically I start working, sometimes that memory will evoke another feeling, and than I am off in another direction.. It is a journey of self-discovery.  Each painting unique, created in the moment. It maybe realistic or abstracted solely based on the emotions brought to the surface.

In my workshops I try to teach this technique to help open the artist to greater possibilities.  It is not always easy and I see them struggle, it is hard for an artist to lose control and not dictate the direction of the painting. But than the magic happens, I will get an e-mail a few weeks later from a student telling me I showed them a new way of seeing. That it was freeing to let their intuitive side dominate the canvas.  They like the outcome,  they don’t mirror my technique but they create their own story, a story unique to them and a painting that is all their own.

I call it Creating Positive-Energy Art.

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