Meditative Painting

I begun to use art and art making as an instrument for therapy. Using the process of image making can be a beautifully effective manner in which one may express emotion and discover previously shadowed elements of oneself.

Meditative painting can feel liberating; the concept is to enter a child-like state and, without directive thought, create whatever may come naturally at that time. It’s not about right or wrong; there is no wrong answer - it is simply about creating what you create in that moment and appreciating the conclusion. We can also interpret the mark-making and make sense of what we see…if one learns how to see more than just a painting.

I enjoy spending time with my children making random marks; there’s something about an infants process of creating images that removes all rules constructed by years of practise and study…to just simply create whatever your hand and the brush produces without fear of right or wrong. Meditative painting can help us to find that freedom again.

These two paintings were created by my daughters using ProCreate on an old iPad Pro. It was interesting to watch them prioritise how they choose to create imagery (My eldest focused on brush strokes and a circular pattern whilst my youngest was rather good at choosing different colours and brush types).

These images were created using a radial symmetry guideline on ProCreate. The idea being that the page is split into several sections. When I paint on one section, it repeats in a radial pattern around the page. 

These images were crated by my daughter, my niece, and nephew (Who are all infants). These images show how technical skill does not have to be a priority. Art can be created by anyone, who cares by what means an image is made? What matters is you made it and it has meaning to you…that’s all you need from your art. The children lit up when they saw how the symmetry worked, mere scribbles transformed into beautiful patterns in front of them.