Art for Meditation

Okay, I posted yesterday about this virtual retreat I am playing around in.

We're now 3 days down and day 4 must wait til Monday. I am sad to not have the go go go of classes every hour to look forward to. BUT...also a little relieved for the breathing room.

I had one class I was looking forward to about digitizing artwork because I literally have ZERO technological abilities. And I'm not just being modest. Photoshop gives me more anxiety than being in a massive crowd of strangers and...I know you don't know me personally, but trust me: crowds are one of my top 3 phobias!
The point is that any help I can get to push me into the realm of actually using the programs on this computer is pretty much sent from heaven, as far as I'm concerned.

The other classes I wanted to get in my day were more focused on 'starting' and getting over the idea that painting must end in a specific place. But also the idea that it must START at a specific place or even have a specific goal.

Getting lost in moving color around a blank page is a soothing kind of meditation that is often overlooked by people like me, who see art as a mystical beast only a select few are able to harness.

So I started classes with a very soothing study of flowers to just stop thinking and put color on the page.
How to Get Over Your Fear of the Blank Page... with Harriet de Winton

I think it's pretty obvious that I wasn't quite getting how the instructor was making her beautiful flowers, but as I just kept practicing and getting a better feel for the movement of my brush and the quirks of my brushes from a million years ago (I am using all my husbands old brushes and some very old paint, along with some new but cheaper watercolors). My number one problem with watercolors is my need to 'fix' things with more paint or water or both. And I know better...I just can't control myself!
But it was an exercise in letting go. A meditation or sorts. So it is what it is and I enjoyed every calming second of it.

Every day with these retreats I have a shining moment. The one piece of the day that I look at and think 'how did that come from me!?'

This was it, yesterday. 'A Study of Flowers in Watercolor' with Nikki Hess
I mean...when you look at the first thing I did yesterday and then at this sweet little study of the strawberry...how are they from the same person!? Mind blown.

And without stopping, I moved onto 'Anti Color Mixing Watercolor Flowers' with Kristy Rice.
This was actually a live class, so the instructor was right there, answering questions. I was too busy ...trying to fix my mistakes again!

She called this an alien flower or something. Basically to get across the fact that it was not to look like something you'd actually see somewhere. We were NOT mixing colors on our palettes but rather letting them merge on the page. No concern for colors, just doing what moved us to see what happened.
The big starburst in the top corner is a clear example of trying to fix with more water and paint.
and the bottom left corner, same.
But it was a fast and furious experiment in how colors merge and blend on the page. It was fun.

I am really enjoying these classes sort of geared towards those of us who are really just exercising our creative sides and just want to paint for a way to 'escape'.

WARNING: unrelated pic of my sad little 'where have you been all day' dog faces...
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