New Beginnings

A New Year's day walk blew the cobwebs away. The biting wind was a refreshing change from the lethargy induced by a wood burner heated house, over Christmas. Both body and mind need a shake up. Much thought. Sea air is such a tonic.

A  spring clean in the studio was called for today.....out with the old in with the new and all that. A clean sheet on the painting table, the paints and brushes all tidied up...ready to start. I want to start with some 'mindful' painting. A meditation. Taking time to prepare the surface and mix the paints, focusing totally on the job. I am deliberately using cheap materials, poster paint and lining paper, so that I don't become bogged down with doing a proper painting. I want to allow the brush to do the work.

Gesso on the paper, gives a good surface on which to work.

Choosing a Chinese calligraphy brush means I have little control over neat lines !

I didn't want to have a subject either. Like the work we do in the expressive painting workshops, I wanted to not think about the end result. I chose the Zen Enso as a shape to repeat. It's hard to get a good enso.....flowing, circular and paint consistent. But I found the more I let it flow, the more consistent they became.

 I carried mindfully on and on until I had used up all the paint.

 Mixed up some white and repeated.

 Not sure what I wanted to do beyond that, I just sat with it while as the wind and rain lashed against the studio window. Without thinking , picked up a pen and wrote what was in my head today. Thinking about 'how interconnected everything is and how people and events in my life are reflections of my state of conciousness'.  Something happened then, that kinda proved that.

 A tipex pen is very useful for drawing white lines.

Tomorrow is another day.