Mandala Sisters have great appreciation for Mother Nature as she shares her artistic creations with all of us. Thank you Mother for your flowers, buds, and evidences of new life.
What do you get when you mix:
A scratchy recording of The Irish Rovers singing “The Unicorn”
A “Kimberly” 4 B graphite pencil–
A drawing pad
And a BLINDFOLD!
FREE-FORM ART!
The above was the recipe one Mandala Sister was given by her college professor to “loosen up the mind and the hand” for free style drawing!
It seemed like the biggest waste of time back then but he may have known something.
But why the same song, week after week? Did the Professor long for his Hootenanny days? Or was he trying to drive a bunch of college freshman a little cuckoo?
This is not a slap to the Irish Rovers or the song ”The Unicorn” (written by Shel Silverstein for fans of the book ”A Light in the Attic”) but finding your free form is a challenge when the chosen music doesn’t have much of a beat to begin with.
The semester ended and that Mandala Sister would have given anything to hear “Kitty, the Rose of Kilrea”, yet another hit by the Irish Rovers! It had a little more promise for the task at hand.
If you’re adventurous and want to do this exercise find something with a noticeable beat. It’s easier to work with and you can just close your eyes! No blindfold needed. Hey, switch hands, you’ll access another side of the brain.
It Takes Ca-Ca-Ca-Courage!
Really good instructors realize the power that resides in the creation of Art and the best of them are very nurturing when they spot the energy of creation stirring in their student.
Spirit and emotion are released into a painting and that means it is released from you when you create.
And now, here’s where we have had to suck it up and admit that we may not have gotten it when we started out but the fact is:
Music Lends Itself to Creativity!
That’s the reason the Mandala Sisters have tried to demonstrate throughout our posts the effect of music on your every day way of being. It can be calming, inspiring, but can also flush out those creative juices one has stirring.
We created our first Mandalas to Luciano Pavarotti’s recording of “Nessun Dorma”. We can still see ourselves painting when we hear that music! It’s like having that wonderful experience all over again!
She didn’t even like that type of music but here’s what happened!
One Mandala Sister had a “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” of sorts, the type that was inspired by the great Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. While painting together in class, one Mandala Sister looked over to see the other Mandala Sister frantically painting with the speed of light, sparks and creativity like she has never seen before. Take a listen to this:
This was the outcome from listening to Flatt and Scruggs!
Try it for yourself!
Here’s a little fact about life on Planet Earth:
NONE of us are created alike. We are all created to be different. Period.
Don’t Make Your Garbage Man Mad. Here’s What We Did!
Whether at the Louvre, the Tate, or the museums in the States, a classic way of teaching world-wide is to try to duplicate the Masters. We never come close to creating like the Masters but it helps to understand the artistic process. It’s endearing to observe groups of small children trying their hand at what the Masters excelled at. They get it too! But here’s how we’ve used one of those lessons…
You can’t just throw out excess paint these days. That’s big trouble in this time of environmental concern and that’s fine with us but what to do with the excess? Jackson Pollock to the rescue!
Artist Jackson Pollock was highly criticized in the Art World when he began this free-form style of creation.
In our view, he cornered the market on fun when he put the classic way of painting down and started throwing the paint instead! Thank you, Jackson Pollock, for showing the way.
Jackson Pollock
This is really, really fun!
This is ours. And here’s the closeup below!
How to do it?
- Paint the background a base color to compliment ALL your excess colors.
- If something doesn’t look like it fits, don’t use it. There’s no going back in this painting.
- Add enough water to make it really soupy but not watery.
- We threw paint with a spoon, flicked paint with the pointed end of a paint brush but our favorite tool was a thin crochet hook that we just dripped in a circular motion.
- We added each individual color in a layer before going on to the next color.
- Voila´! The painting was finished when we intuitively felt it was so.
But Mandala Sisters, we don’t have a place to do this type of painting!
Sure you do! The bathtub! Cover the inside of your bathtub with a few garbage bags taped to the inside and throw away when you’re finished. Any mess cleans up with water. It’s latex! You are using latex, aren’t you?
