This style of painting is totally new for me. It's fun, happy, and fulfilling. I love letting my brush move to the color that feels best. I love letting the brush make strokes based on an inner expression that for me holds no words, no concepts, no self-critic. I don't really want to know if the paintings have a "meaning." I just want to keep painting.
I've been painting for 15 years: for recreation, for learning's sake, as a precious hobby. I've taken many classes - some at the local art supply store, some on location with highly accomplished artists. I was taught the basics, but never taught how to make my spirit sing through painting. I learned how to duplicate photos and how to paint from nature. Even though I could produce an OK painting, I wasn't fulfilled or happy.
Every once in a while in those 15 years, I caught a glimmer of the feeling that I was connected into "all there is." In those ecstatic joy-filled moments, I felt connected in to universal consciousness. I was the dancer in the cosmic celebration. I was free. I was dreaming in colors I'd never seen before and moving in a rhythm I'd never known. I was painting from my spirit and soul, not from somthing I saw outside me, but from something I knew within me. I yearned to create those moments at will, but didn't know how.
Then, one day my dearest painting pal phoned about a workshop we could attend in San Francisco. Point Zero Painting with Michele Cassou. I enrolled. Unfortunately, my friend couldn't join me. So I packed my bags and flew to this fabulous city for a 5-day class.
In those five days, I began painting in the wondrous colors of my soul. Using only poster paper and tempera paints, I let mybrush choose the colors and let myhands move the brush however it felt like going. All 25 of us in class were instructed not to talk, but rather to enjoy silence so everyone could get comfortable in their creativity.
