Last night, I was invited as a guest tutor to teach a lovely art group who have been meeting for twenty years. I decided to use the two hours to attempt to teach something about Alexander Technique in relationship to art making. An experiment for me and a bit of a risk as it was…
Tag: alexander technique and art
A Delicate Brush
I’ve been painting with feathers on canvas all summer after experimenting on paper with feathers during the winter. Yesterday I sold the first painting of these explorations. It’s alway great to sell as it gives an incentive and boost to keep going. My inner critic gets silenced and replaced with gratitude as the art is…
Screwing Up
This does not become this This exists, then this One state This moment A flickering fire Forming, reforming The flame dies Embers Earthed by the rain Three stages of a painting getting worse, coinciding with my lungs not being happy with painting in oils again. Oil painting a guilty pleasure. Time to stop. Unfinished. A…
If You Do the Same Thing
“If you keep doing the same thing in the same way you get the same result.’ FM Alexander It’s a truth not universally acknowledged that people want to change but stay the same! It doesn’t work, does it? Change is tricky – it can mean disrupting the status quo, saying ‘no’, stepping back, pulling out,…
The Importance of Being Wobbly
I don’t agree with arguing for your limitations! People do it all the time and it seems daft. Why not explore what your perceived limitations are telling you and let yourself wobble for a bit instead? You will recalibrate. Wobbling is important! Wobbling is part of being balanced. Balance is movement at its highest potential….
No! – Work in Progress
It can be hard to say ‘No!’ All sorts of emotions and thoughts can emerge to negotiate – guilt, fear, the people pleaser… but a ‘No’ to someone else can be a ‘Yes’ to yourself. In my experience a lot of us women find saying ‘No’ difficult, having been brought up to be good girls….
Think Back
“As practise makes perfect I cannot help to make progress; each drawing I make, each study one paints, is a step in the right direction.” Vincent Van Gogh Back into a stack of drawings, rummaging through. One cat, buried in the pile, somewhere more drawings in this style that have never seen the light of…
Crow Feather
A painting of crows painted with a single crow feather, connecting the bird, the process and the image. Painting with a feather brings a lightness of touch and a freedom yet less control. Engaging to do. This drawing has a presence. I know it does! It’s what we hope for in art – to create…
Pretty Vacant!
To paint is to be present … Riding a horse is to be present, in balance, aware, listening, feeling, allowing …. Alexander Technique teaches how to return to this natural easy alert poised state. Each of these disciplines are a life times work, probably several lifetimes! I wonder why I prefer being at home with…
Intentions – A bit of a stretch!
Artwork – Floating Above, Acrylic and Gold on Panel, 30 x 30cm I wrote a blog a few days ago called ‘The Joy of Not Setting Intentions.’ It definitely helped me have more fun with everything, so returning to the word intention this morning curious about its etymology. Intention comes from the Latin intendere meaning…
Tao Te Ching – Twenty
I’m stepping back from the business end of art to enjoy art’s fun. In a world where it seems ‘all about the sale’ and making a living, it’s been a challenge to disentangle from trying, but I’m feeling my inner flame beginning to burn brighter the more I do. It’s exciting! What a challenge it…
Tao Te Ching – Thirteen
Accept disgrace willingly. Accept misfortune as the human condition. What do you mean by “Accept disgrace willingly”? Accept being unimportant. Do not be concerned with loss or gain. This is called “accepting disgrace willingly.” What do you mean by “Accept misfortune as the human condition”? Misfortune comes from having a body. Without a body, how…
Tao Te Ching – Twelve
The five colours blind the eye. The five tones deafen the ear. The five flavours dull the taste. Racing and hunting madden the mind. Precious things lead one astray. Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees. He lets go of that and chooses this. LAO TSU ****…
Tao Te Ching – Seven
Heaven and earth last forever Why do heaven and earth last forever? They are unborn So ever living. The sage stays behind, thus he is ahead. He is detached, thus at one with all. Through selfless action, he attains fulfilment. LAO TSU **** I didn’t paint yesterday, creativity ‘unborn’, instead I moved paintings around, searching…
Tao Te Ching – Six
The valley spirit never dies: It is the woman, primal mother. Her gateway is the root of heaven and earth. It is like a veil barely seen. Use it; it will never fail. Lao Tsu ***** Another cold day. Wind stealing energy. Walking with Maisie, feeling low, thinking about the word ‘valley’ in the verse….
Reflections on Plagiarism, Stress, Tattoos & the Kindness of Strangers!
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride If turnips were watches, I’d wear one by my side If ‘if’s and ‘and’s’ were pots and pans, There would be no work for tinkers hands! If wishes were horses, beggars would ride Watch! Some ‘turnips’ have no integrity or pride They’ll plagiarise your concept, pass it…
Uncluttering My Sluttery!
Apparently the Victorians had a word for a room into which unwanted, unusable, needing to be mended stuff was dumped – a sluttery! I love it. Why do the useful words drop out of usage? So here’s to admitting that I have a sluttery! I am guessing most other people have a sluttery too,…
28 Drawings Later – Drawing some conclusions, half way through
I’m doing a project called 28 Drawings Later aka getting through a shitty February in the wilderness! (Us Brits like to moan about the weather, a national form of therapy and endless fascination!) The title 28 Drawings Later appealed – the suggestion of a journey, the suggestion of arriving in a new place – bring…
Free Creativity E – Course – Testemonial
This blog is a letter from someone who took my free creativity e-course. (link below.) Maybe you can relate to what she says about spending 50 years thinking she wasn’t creative … ‘Kirsten, through your online art course you made me feel like I CAN be creative after 50 years of thinking I can’t!…
Make Art Not War – Weapons of Mass Creation
At art school a tutor commented that my brushes looked like they had been at war. A comment that stuck with me, but I did not really understand. Twenty years later whilst painting I was listening to a Radio 4 programme on post traumatic stress disorder, previously known as shell shock and realised that…
Artists Statement
As a painter my interest lies primarily in the process of painting – brush strokes, mark making, colour – the surface texture of paint, the flow of a line, the feel … However, what lies behind the feel, flow and joy of painting is something I have started blogging about this year. That is,…