What is Intuitive Painting and why do I love it?!
Intuitive painting is different from traditional painting mainly because your reference material and inspiration are found inside of you rather than in a still life set up, a landscape or a model. You are inspired by your own life experiences, memories, passions, interests and imagination and all of this fuels your creativity so you can express your very unique and personal colors, shapes, forms, textures, patterns and themes!
I have created traditional works of art in various media over the years from pastels to colored pencils, as well as charcoals, graphite and pen-and-ink drawing. I love working this way when I’m working on a piece that inspires me, especially when the subject matter is close to my heart. However, when I discovered intuitive painting, the trajectory of my art expression was completely transformed!
Intuitive painting has set me free from many of the “conversations in my head” that had me scrutinizing my work, comparing my artistic ability to others, worrying if I was “getting it right”. When I discovered intuitive painting, I created watercolor and ink backgrounds that seem to speak to me, seem to invite me in to play, to experiment. I started to make shapes, pick random colors, build visual textures. Grouping these together, I was fascinated by some pretty neat patterns that started to dance on the paper. Before I knew it, I was lost in this magical world of creativity that was exploding out of me, stopping only to change the dirty water in my cup, and not to think about the piece !
Over the past six months I have made some significant, big, transformative changes in my life, like leaving my full-time job as the manager/buyer in a local art supply store, in order to pursue my love for making happy art full-time. And, metaphorically, I traveled back in time to find that young girl that I was a long time ago, the girl who surrounded herself with markers and paints and spent hours lost in doodling, drawing and creating fun art! After many years and so much distance between us, I took her hand and brought her with me into my new, exciting, “pinch me” present day life! And so, the time that she and I have spent making intuitive art has been memorable and magical. A friend recently told me that my art “clearly represents exactly who I am at this very moment”. What a compliment!
For me, the intuitive process has gotten me in touch with my love for wildflowers, weeds and gardening. And, it has helped me to remember the fun times in my life when I felt pure joy. Universes and worlds filled with color, form, shape, texture and pattern swirl around in my head now all the time. I am no longer restrained by my eyesight because my imagination is on fire. Intuitive painting has encouraged me to be playful, whimsical and wildly experimental. I feel as though this well of inspiration and creativity is infinite…as is my excitement for sharing it with the world!
