A portrait...

La Coiffure, 1901,  Matisse

Today I spent a very enjoyable day painting from life. A portrait commissioned by a gorgeous woman, beautiful inside and out, as a gift to her husband of 20 years. I can't show it to you as it is private and very personal. Painting from life, though, apart from the art side of things, is great fun as I get to meet wonderful people and have a good chat while painting.

I intend to do a lot more of these, following in a very old and well established tradition, celebrating the beauty of women.

Active Meditation

I read an article today by Maria Brophy, who has very successfully managed her husband's art career, and who shares her knowlege about marketing and managing an art business on her blog. In it, she shared how learning to meditate has helped her with her writing, and gave some great tips for how artists can use meditation to unleash their creativity.

While I completely agree with the benefits of meditation, for me, the sitting still and emptying mind kind never really works - all I do is think about the thoughts that aren't supposed to be there - and I haven't found any real impact on either my creativity or productivity from doing this (and I have tried, over a long period of time. It certainly helped me to breathe better, and to be more calm and centred).

What works better for me is to engage fully in active meditation. For instance, Maria meditates before she starts to write, to put her in a creative space so that her writing can flow. If I do that, I feel anxious to be doing the work and it takes me away from my creative space. Instead, I simply start to work - at first, as with sitting meditation, the voices in my head become very loud - telling me I'm crap, not good enough, other artists are better, etc, etc, etc...

However, if I just start anyway, and focus on my work, very soon those voices disappear, and my mind is completely absorbed with the problems of the painting. I am not consciously thinking, and yet am making decisons and choices all along. This is a well documented thing, of course, and is described as being in the zone.

In the zone, time and the physical body fade away and it's as if something comes in to guide me.

Hours pass and time and physical concerns are unnoticed - for example, I always make a cup of tea when I start painting but it's always almost full when I stop. I just get completely absorbed and forget about evrything else.

For me, the work is the meditation. Not just any work though, for me it's painting (there is plenty of work I have to do that no amount of any kind of meditation or anything else will make timeless for me!). Working with horses does the same thing.

I've noticed that action unleashes creativity for me - such as going for a walk / run / ride, and especially in the bush or at least with trees around. When I am still, or trying to be, I get stuck. If I start to move, I get unstuck.

Interestingly, it's the same with young horses. When they get stuck, or tight, the best thing to do is just to get them moving, and then it's easy to redirect them. Moving releases both their feet and their mind. I've known and practiced this for a long time, and yet only just realised it works for me as well. There really isn't much you can learn about life that a horse can't teach you. Just another reason I love to paint horses!

Either way, a regular practice - and Maria talks about how important it is to have a regular practice - that puts you in that empty mind / zone state is essential for allowing the full potential of your creativity and purpose to be realised.

On a lighter note - check this out. The very funny Laura Belgray exposes the myth of meditation-as-relaxation. Too true.

I'll write more on how you can make art your meditation practice soon.

The Artists' manifesto by Buddha

I came across this quote by Buddha today, thanks to Maria Brophy:

“Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery.
Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds!
Shine.”
Buddha

For me, that about sums up the way to happy, satisfying and successful life in any career, but especially in art.

Meditate
Painting and drawing are active meditations in themselves. I can go to my studio tired, cranky and headachey, and hours will pass by unnoticed, pain and tiredness disappear, and I am absorbed completely in what I am doing.

Mastery
The pursuit of mastery is what drives me with my work - I imagine I'll be still working towards it until the day I die, or at least I hope to be.

Achieving mastery will require many long, quiet, hours of solitude in the studio or in observation of what I paint - and a large proportion of all the years it took me to surrender to the desire to follow my heart into the life of a full time artist were spent also in quiet solitude on the back of a horse in the Australian bush, watching the cattle, the sky, the landscape and seeing paintings in my mind.

Shine
And, the bills must be paid, so it is also necessary to come out form behind the clouds of self doubt and shine. This is the uncomfortable part for me and just about every artist I know, but is also incredibly humbling to have someone moved to tears by my work, and partly what make all the hours of solitary struggle worthwhile.

I'll write more on how painting can be an excellent way to meditate and simplify your life in future posts. Now, it's time for some "meditation" in the studio!

Brisbane Racing Club

I was pleased to donate this painting to the gorgeous Pru Harris, Promotions & Communications Manager of the Brisbane Racing Club. I'm looking forward to working with them in the New Year and excited at the prospect of painting some more beautiful racehorses.

The painting is a little different style for me but I wanted to include the references to Doomben Racecourse, although I have used a little artistic licence here and there. I worked largely from a photo I found -unfortuntely I don't know who the photographer is - if anyone does know I'd love to thank them for the use of it as a reference and acknowlege them.

Melbourne Cup at the Polo Club

I was thrilled to have the opportunity to paint the winner of the 2009 Melbourne Cup at the Brisbane Polo Club for their cup function.

The Polo Club is a beautiful old building, with a wonderful ambience, and the staff are truly lovely. I had a ball despite painting for 5 hours in high heels - not something I'd recommend!

The guests and I enjoyed fabulous food, champers and all the excitement of the cup -as usual I didn't pick the winner though!

From a painting point of view it was a great experience just painting from my heart, with no reference. What freedom - I just enjoyed the paint and what I felt as I put down each muscle, shape, line and colour. I decided I need to do more painting like that - it's easy to get to caught up in detail. Part of the challenge in painting realsim is capturing a true likeness of the subject - and it's important to me to portray my subject accurately both anatomically as well as to capture the feel or essence of a creature - while at the same time creating an interesting, original painting - a piece of art rather than just a copy of a photograph.

I'll let you decide how I went when I post the finished painting.

10 Reasons I paint horses

Because I love them. I love their breath, I love their gentle and forgiving natures, I love their heart, their athleticism and power. I love their smell and the feel of them.

I'm humbled by what they have done for mankind and they sacrifices they have made. I'm in awe of what they endure and their patience with those who need patience. Time and again I have seen a horse who would throw a good rider with ease, for their arrogance, yet be like a lamb for a child, or for someone who couldn't ride, but was humble.

Because I love their shape, their gestures of power and grace and the infinite possibilities of design and beauty they offer.

Because every adventure, opportunity and breakthrough in my life has in some way been connected to horses. They fill my memories, experiences and dreams.

Because they are so rewarding to work with – without fail they let me know if I'm on the wrong track and when I'm doing it right.

They have scarred my body and built my character, cracked my bones and soothed my soul
Because just looking at a horse gives me pleasure and because riding a good horse is like nothing else on earth, pure exhilaration and awesome gratitude.

Because they've carried me safely galloping over pulled scrub, tirelessly for miles and miles on hot, long days and always given more, thrilled me with their sensitivity and with the lightness of our communication.

Because from the back of a horse I've seen a landscape not many have the fortune to see, and have been allowed entry into the quiet cathedral of nature, and to peace.

Last but not least, I paint horses because I love their shiny, dappled coats in cadmium colours, rich and soft and bright. Theirs are the colours of my palette I love the most and losing myself in the lusciousness of their colours, shapes and sheen is pure pleasure. Because the contrast and texture of light and shade, dark and light is infinitely challenging and ultimately satisfying to attempt to capture in pencil.

Quotes...

“Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life"


Epictetus (Greek philosopher associated with the Stoics, AD 55-c.135)

A beautiful life....

"Morning Horses" available as a premium greeting card here and poster here

What makes something beautiful? If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it is perception. Someone said that the job of the artist is to find beauty. Artists will tell you that when they are seeing through artists eyes, everything becomes beautiful. What makes it so? I think it's because the artists eye is one that sees without judgement, that sees simply what is there, and what is there is nature. When we are drawing from life, we see not a fat or thin or ugly person - we see curves, shadows, light, form, edges - to make a successful drawing, we must forget what we know, and see what is there in front of us. We must really see what is there. We need to leave out what is we think we know about the subject (have beginners mind), and instead discover what is there. We can focus every detail, or step back, and try to see just the essence, the gesture, what is truly the heart of the sitter. Leaving out the "baggage" and teh "knowing" and focusing on the heart is what gives us a likeness, and a drawing with life, with beauty.

You know what else makes a drawing beautiful? It's interest. The most beautiful drawings are interesting. A perfect face is beautiful on it's own, but what makes it interesting, and an extraordinary portrait, is expression, soul, life. Simply rendering perfect bone structure is usually less satisfying, and much less interesting. What makes it beautiful is often life itself - the light on a curve in a given moment; the colours of her dress reflected in her face; her expression as she looks out to the world; the pose - what is she doing in this precious moment? A "plain" face captured in a moment by an artist who has observed and captured these things becomes beautiful and is often more so than a conventionally beautiful face. A face that is what would normally be described diplomatically as "interesting" becomes extraordinarily beautiful seen with the artists eye, this face with all it's folds and curves and shadows and light becomes (as it always was) a work of art, breathtaking in it's beauty.

Perfection is neither interesting nor beautiful. What makes something beautiful is it's essence, it's very imperfections, it's uniqueness, and the more "imperfections", the more interesting, the more potential for the play of light and Shadow, the more places for the colours of the world to rest, the more room there is for the portrait to stand by itself, breathtaking in simply being itself.

All this is like life. What makes a life beautiful? Not perfection, and yet so many of us feel the need to be that way. An interesting life is a beautiful life, and what makes life interesting is being in each precious moment - noticing what is around us, seeing without judgement, embracing the folds and curves and shadows and light of life, and of ourselves. If we see with an artists eye, life becomes beautiful. Everyone and everything becomes interesting, breathtaking and exciting. There is no room for judgement, only possibility, acceptance and love. We can see what is really there and leave out the details that do not serve the essence. We can create our own beautiful portrait, of ourselves, and of our lives.

Quotes...

In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves.- Bulwer-Lytton

Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. - Marcus Aurelius

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. - Aristotle

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious, the source of all art and science.- Albert Einstein