As you may or may not know, a few years ago I created the Creative Regeneration process which leads from meditation, through focusing (felt sensing in the body) and freewriting and it lands in the grand final dance - intuitive painting. I wrote a book and hosted retreats and workshops to share it as widely as possible. Creative Regeneration is aimed at releasing the natural state of joy, power and creativity - the life force. Once this is released, it can be used for anything a person might choose, even things that may not be conventionally considered to be creative at all.
So the whole energy of the painting is the whole point. Squirting paint directly onto paper, painting with your hands, making a complete 'mess', trying to move the paint faster than the mind can think. Complete action without judgement, activating energy, allowing yourself to follow an emerging process, participating in the natural creativity that makes the plants grow, without trying to be separate from it or control it - that was the point. The painting was not the point, the point was the point.
And over the past year or so, a step has emerged for me, from that energy overflow, that participation in creation. The step was actually into painting - a painting that would be at least as much the point as the point itself, if you see what I mean.
So while I still squirt the paint directly onto the canvas at the start and I still use my hands more often than not, I now use the thinking process to not only receive messages from the painting as it evolves but also to choose, to structure and to decide, and I allow myself time to make the decisions. I often find myself doing the thing I decided to do, opening up and using the judgement process - I can do it more or less fitting the criteria of what I want. It's a much slower process, not always so joyous, the energy is not always ebullient and free-flowing. There are all kinds of moments.
This doesn't mean I can't still paint the old intuitive way in order to regenerate life energy and feel the full on participation in creation without mental interference, I can do that if I want to. Also, I am still running annual retreats at terrealuma, to share this powerful and joyful process with other people. At first the new way of painting felt ever so slightly like a betrayal of creative regeneration, but that would be to set up a dichotomy and start judging again.
At the end of the day, there are two spirits in everything and every activity, the yin and the yang, you might call them. Entire receptivity refreshes and energises my whole life and makes some lovely paintings along the way, as that energy comes through. Allowing myself to think, choose, decide, letting my mind into the process of creation leads to a different kind of energetic transmission. All of it is art.
If you'd like to see and maybe even purchase some of my new artwork, and have a chat, I'll be showing and selling at Parallax in London Feb 22-23rd - and if you'd like an invite to the private viewing on Friday 21st eve, just contact me using the form at the end of the homepage, or reply to this email and I'll be happy to pop you on the list!
Sarah
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