Painting!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 at 06:10AM
Rachel Ellen Andrews

I've had fun painting and preparing to paint since the last time.  

I'm still using Flora Bowley's method of painting in layers - it makes sense to me - our lives are layers of emotions and experience - we are all multi-faceted.  I enjoy applying the paint in what seems like a random act and watching the painting take on a life of its own.

I decided to re-cycle some canvases I had started and not finished or was dis-satisfied with - this felt great to watch them come back to life!

Once they were on their way, I chose one and started the next layers.  This canvas is the one closest to you in the image above - it started life as a mandala - you can just see the purple and blue underneath.  The energy of the mandala is retained throughout the subsequent painting even through its toning down and calming colours 

This painting went through several different incarnations - the most difficult bits were the flower heads - the details in life are often the trickiest to sort out but here's the finished piece (and it is peace full)...

I'm still working on this next one, but I like the pics of the process.  This is painted over a symbol of the sacral chakra:

I love the colours that are retained from the original painting and the energy of the marks from my overpainting. Like the paintings we are all many layered, we can't (and don't want to!!) rub things out completely - what has gone before is what makes us how we are today.

I'm fascinated that this process has so many parallels in my life...

I love the energy that is in the early stages of these paintings - and I have this energy, but I can't live at that level; I have to have calm, so too my paintings become calmer...

What is your process - in life, in painting??

 

 

 

Article originally appeared on rachellen (http://www.rachelellenandrews.com/).
See website for complete article licensing information.