Mandalas
I'm having such fun painting these. They give me such energy imagining them and painting them. Hope their energy radiates to you!
The materials are mainly watercolor and antique Pelikan metallic gouaches (water-soluble). I'm also using some Sennelier inks, mostly metallic (not water soluble) and my own mix of iridescent watercolor using a Holbein medium. Some of the newer ones are oil pastel, some are collaged using old prints of mine.
They re inspired by nature, of course. Also by my job as an Art Therapist including the tyranny of time - a 9-5:00 workday of 30 minute segments/sessions, clocking in on time, commute schedules, numerous meetings - and a degree of planning counter-pointed by the spontaneity of client immediate needs. (There were also the 25 years of edition printing, with scrupulous planning leading to uniformity and repetition - by human hand and eye - the rule!) So these paintings are my ways of coping, my releases and reactions to past and present - spontaneous, unplanned. I had begun a series of tightly planned mandalas but that project is left lingering undone while these watery colorful images came forth. Lots of layering, of colors and techniques (brushing, sponging, splattering). The circle form helps to calm and focus; my self-imposed strictures and structures help further these.
The artist does not live in bliss. He is sensitive to. . . the events which compel him to act. This is bound to happen. This is not an intellectual attitude but a profound feeling, something like a cry of joy which delivers you from anguish.
~ Joan Miro
