My mindfulness art practice.
My mindfulness practice started in January 2022 when I participated in an online course taught by the fabulous V. Over the years I had dipped in to mindfulness but had not been able to sustain a regular practice. I felt the time was right to change this.
Mindfulness and the awareness of emotions, physical sensations and consciousness through our senses is such a big part of my creative process that I had not really realised. I take part in a weekly life drawing class for 2 hours and often felt like the time just evaporated, while drawing so intensely I had no room for other thoughts and it felt so relaxing. So after completing the mindfulness course over 8 weeks I have now included the following practices into my week. I feel more connected, relaxed and I hope by sharing with you 3 practices I use it my help you to become more mindful and able to give yourself the love.
Slow Looking
When setting up my still life subjects to paint such as flowers, cups, plates or vases I spend 5mins at least holding each piece just looking at them before I start to paint. I look closely at the colour how it changes across the surface, textures rough smooth and how this feels, the weight of them in your hand. Some object are familiar and others new but taking time to really see them really focuses my mind on the present and often I am surprised at what I find.
Slow Drawing
I love the sensation of slow drawing. Since starting my 100 day project I have used the same object a small jug to draw for 15mins daily as slow as possible. The slowness increases the awareness of the object and really focuses my mind on what I am seeing. It doesn’t always mean the mark I make is slow but the time I take to look and draw is slow enough that I don’t just draw what I think is there but what is there.
Life Drawing
Life Drawing: This kind of drawing is very intense for me and completely absorbing I can’t think about anything else while drawing from a model. I enjoy building from 5 mins drawing to a longer 20-30min pose. I find this practice the really enables me to shut my mind from the constant noise of everyday life the lists the jobs to do and the internal conversations we have. Foe a few hours a week my mind id free and I am totally absorbed in the looking and mark marking.