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 primarily by nature, of course. Many were painted throughout my tenure as a f/t Art Therapist, consistently re-balancing rigid time strictures with spontaneity of clients' emotional needs. (There were also the previous 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.
"Being on the lotus, one is living in a floating world and always needing to rebalance oneself." (Betty Winkler)
