Painting Is Not Just About Painting

May 7, 2016 | Articles

Photo of a woman participating in a Painting Experience workshop on Whidbey Island in 2016

 

Your creative power, once revived, is not likely to stay silent in your daily existence.

If painting were just about painting, it would be of little interest. Painting does not occupy a limited compartment of life, but thrusts its roots and branches into the deepest parts of us, transforming our ways of being.

It’s Not What You Do, But How You Do It

The tool you choose for your creative expression is not so important. It could be writing, acting, dancing, speaking, making music, cooking — the list of potential forms of expression is endless. It’s how you do it that counts. Have you fully met the creative spirit? Did you go to the end of what is possible?

A discovery made in any creative action will transfer spontaneously to another part of your life. If you are a writer or a dancer, you can deepen your process through painting. What you discover while painting will infiltrate every aspect of your work. You don’t even need to translate what you have learned; it will happen automatically, because you have found a freer and more joyful way to create.

The freedom you reclaim as an adult will stay with you for your lifetime. It will survive even if you stop using it for years, because it melts into your blood, mixes with the air you breathe. It is a recovered instinct; it becomes part of your natural behavior.

 

Painting Is Not Just About Painting

 

Your Creative Power Will Give You What You Need

Your creative power, once revived, is not likely to stay silent in your daily existence. It will bring the desire to take risks, to reach for what you really want in your heart. You will remember that there is room to express what is uniquely yours and that there are options for a more harmonious way of living. Your creative power is custom-made for that purpose. It will deliver what you need, whether by color, music, words, or other forms of expression.

The tool of creation is given to you to undo the web of knowing that is woven around your brain, mind, and heart; a web that pressures you to yield to the expected result, to adhere to the blueprint of your projected life. The urge to free yourself from this web manifests as the longing to create. The web unravels when you are mature enough to jump into yourself without knowing where you will land and without the illusion of a safety net.

Learn More

This article is adapted from the book Life, Paint and Passion: Reclaiming the Magic of Spontaneous Expression, co-authored by Stewart Cubley.

To learn about opportunities to participate in The Painting Experience, see our Programs.

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