Intuitive Painting- Accessing the Source
The most important rule about intuitive painting is that there are no rules!
No rules to follow for proper painting technique, that is. No rules for proper anything, actually!
It doesn’t even have to look like anything. It can be a completely abstract color study if that is where your intuition takes you.
What is a rule that to paint intuitively you have to check in with yourself and be true to what comes up?
Intuitive painting can be almost a meditative practice; it is a great way to get in tune with yourself and drop right into that heart space. And because there is no set way it has to end up looking, the Inner Critic can relax and be quiet (even if She is kicking and screaming about giving up that control – at first) because there really is nothing with which you can rightfully compare your ‘performance’. Which equals the freedom to do exactly what comes up at the moment.
A great rule (again) is to never set out with an idea of the final result but listen and feel for what comes up.
I personally find that allowing both this inner listening and the freedom to go ‘wherever the colors take me’ keeps me coming back again and again as there is an unlimited wellspring of “juice” residing in that inner space I get to access through intuition.
And most importantly- I know that all of us have access to this creativity. It is our innate human ability- we are all capable of creativity. It may have been picked out of us through our upbringing but it is still there, waiting for us to reconnect.
My students are usually surprised at first and really had no idea they had such works inside of them. They experience creating something out of nothing and that is both liberating and soul-stirring.
Below is a recording of me making an intuitive painting.
The colors that I chose here are general favorites of mine- they just make me so darn happy! but I didn’t expect what came out of these colors!
The expression ended up being both romantic, soft, and yet fiercely powerful. The juxtaposition of the dragon and the rose seemed a bit odd at first when the dragon came out from the curved shape in the center but it felt true so on I went.
Later left-brain thinking made me realize that the dragon is a representation of strength and protective powers (see the tiny baby dragon?); the rose represents beauty and love. Being in touch with both the male and female sides of our psyche is what comes from this painting to me, at least that is letting my left side of the brain have a say here.
Certainly, as protectors of the young, we get to realize both our strength, tenderness, beauty, power, love, and fierceness all at once.
See the painting for yourself:
I love that I don’t have to follow any rules — I can just have fun with my painting and let it be what ever it is to be! Thank you Susanne for giving me permission to have painting fun!!
Love this! Continue blogging 🙂