Long Story of My Creative Process

The Long Story of My Creative Process

I went to a “Paint Bar” yesterday in Madison, Wisconsin with my son Corey and made my first acrylic painting ever on a canvas! I actually have not drawn a picture since my early twenties. It was really fun to do the painting, the food was good and the Owner Karen did an amazing job transforming a warehouse into a beautiful art studio / bar with an industrial design. I think it’s a wonderful concept to bring people together.

I had the idea to paint my feeling that an invisible blanket of Love-Light is falling upon everyone in the world and is having healing effect on them. I chose to use the colors: red and green, red for love and green for the heart chakra and some yellow and white to represent light and a little black for accents. Then I just did spontaneous painting.

It started out being a rose in the center with light sparks coming out from it like a pinwheel. It looked like a cartoon image without much depth.

Next, I thought that the Love-Light feeling is due to an internal union within, between the male and female energies and this is like the shape of a DNA double helix. So then I used the white to draw this double spiral on top of my image from top to bottom of the canvas. This turned out to be a disaster!

Corey then told me I could use a towel to remove what I didn’t like, so I did and then when I looked at the canvas there was the image of a person’s head. I went with that, feeling this is about me after all. When I added the mouth and eyes, this represented ‘surprise’ that such a wonderful feeling can exist.

As I started blending colors and adding hair, I felt moved to make the brush strokes all go in the same direction, like a spinning vortex. Love feels like falling into a water vortex, losing oneself in the sensation of bliss.

We took a break and when we came back I felt the face was too grey and Corey & I both agreed that it needed yellow. Then Corey just picked up the brush and started adding yellow to the face, skillfully blending the colors. I was grateful that he could help with my painting with his skills. While doing so, he just happened to paint a nose on the face, to which I made a comment. In retrospect, I really like the nose on the face and feel he was part of the synergy of painting what wanted to be expressed..

Lastly, I added a few more accents and then felt I should sign it, which I did with only the initial M which I’ve never done before. When I got home, I wondered if this picture might be one of those where if you turn it upside down it has another image or face in it. I turned it over and did not see a face, I only saw ….

Betsy
May 29, 2015