Water Lilies and Why I Paint
There are lots of reasons why I paint.
I paint because I have an over-whelming desire to create; to have a sense of creative discovery is deeply satisfying. Every painting is a new adventure...
Water Lilies, 36" x 36", oil on canvas
There are lots of reasons why I paint.
I paint because I have an overwhelming desire to create; to have a sense of creative discovery is deeply satisfying. Every painting is a new adventure...
I paint because it's fun. Making art is sometimes just pure, playful fun! And that's healthy...
And therapeutic. When I'm painting, time disappears and I can let go of all the noise of the outside world. I'm in my world now... I never feel depleted after a full days work in the studio.
I paint because I'm very visual and constantly noticing the colours and shapes in the world around me... And I want to express what I see and experience.
I painted Water Lilies purely as an expression of the beauty and tranquility of one of my favourite places... a little pond in the woods in Norway where all you hear are the birds singing and the wind whistling through the trees...
Beauty makes my heart sing.
And sometimes, all I want to do is paint a pretty picture.
Align With Your Dream
Dreams and goals all begin as an idea that, once planted and nurtured. begins to grow and blossom in its own unique way. From ethereal to real it becomes 'real' through a natural, creative process that I call a Dream Journey...
Dreams and goals start as ideas that, once planted and nurtured, begin to grow and blossom in their own unique way. A dream becomes 'real' through a natural, creative process that I call a Dream Journey.
The Magic Pillow
There are seven steps on this journey... (Read step one here)
This week I'm writing about the fifth step in the creative process ~ Align with your dream.
When you wake in the morning from night-time dreams, you know and understand that the dream does not exist outside of yourself. Your dream comes from you.
Your dream is you…
All dreams exist as energy in the unseen world and you ‘see’ and experience them on another level of existance. To make your dreams ‘real’ requires aligning with this energy and acting as if what you imagine already exists.
What you dream and imagine comes from your essence. When you follow your dreams, you are saying “yes!” to your truth and who you really are. You trust that your dreams and desires are what your spirit wants to express in the world. As you align with your dreams you begin tapping into the creative flow of life.
“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.”
When you are in alignment, you become ‘whole’ in all areas of your life. There is no more separation between the inside and the outside. Your life becomes a true expression of You.
When you align with your dream, you are in alignment with who you truly are.
You can download the 7 Steps from Ethereal to Real, part one from the Little Book of Big Dreams here
What It's Like To Be An Artist
An artist’s life is a never-ending adventure into the unknown...
An artist’s life is never boring. Even when we appear to be doing nothing, we have a rich inner life that’s constantly active. In fact, doing nothing is a big part of what we do.
An artist’s life is a never-ending adventure into the unknown...
An artist’s life is never boring. Even when we appear to be doing nothing, we have a rich inner life that’s constantly active. In fact, doing nothing is a big part of what we do.
“The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.”
Sometimes doing nothing brings the biggest flashes of inspiration and ideas...
We are visionaries. We dream and imagine.
A lot.
But we’re also driven to create. So we are dreamers, and also doers.
And we love change.
An artist cannot survive long in the 9 - 5 world. Artists find they change their "jobs" often.
We like to do things differently. We are rebels.
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
An artist's life isn't motivated by money. We make art whether anyone else sees it, or likes it, or buys it.
We do it anyway.
We're a little bit crazy...
“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant. Making your unknown known is the important thing.”
In an artist’s world, there is no separation between the inside and the outside. Who we are is what we do.
“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and with that one, is what we are doing.”
An artist must make art.
