Meditative Painting

Recently I attended a very special art workshop called “Art in Meditation”. The workshop took place in a large park in the middle of Prague. A wonderful place of calm and inspiration, with tall trees, wide green areas, fountains and ponds. The perfect place to combine art and meditation and experience meditative painting.

Before I report more about the course and give you tips on how you can use meditative painting for yourself, I will briefly tell you something about myself. For a long time I felt that I just couldn’t bring myself to create anything artistic. I wasn’t even really aware that I was missing something. I only realized that when I started giving art lessons to a colleague’s son. I thought I really should start painting again! A great thought, but nothing more happened at first. I was just totally blocked and had no real inspiration.

Until I got the idea to write an art blog. Sometimes one thing leads to another once you’ve made up your mind. Everything then seems to come to you. For example, I became aware of the blogger Lilli Koisser and right when I decided to start a website, she offers a very informative and helpful beta test course for free. Incredible! A week later I saw the workshop “Art in Meditation” on Facebook. Everything just fit exactly and I knew I would write my first article about it. So here it is!

Art in meditation

The workshop was great! There were about 20-30 people present. I already knew some of them from the Sahaja Yoga meditation group I attend, but most of them were unknown to me. The atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming from the start. We started the course with a short introduction meditation, during which we all became calm. The meditation was led by a flute player who, after leading us into a thoughtless state, played the flute. The energy that arose in the group was very calming and peaceful.

After the meditation everyone looked for a place to paint. Meditation has helped a lot to calm thoughts and doubts. So exactly what prevents you from painting. If thoughts or doubts did arise, I said to myself that it is not important what comes out today, it is simply about the feeling that has arisen through the meditation and about letting this feeling flow into the picture. It doesn’t matter whether it’s picturesque or not. On that day it was just a matter of being in the here and now and painting without judging. That was really liberating and motivating. In addition, it is really great to paint together with others in a group, because the atmosphere supports the painting process significantly.

But I think that painting meditatively in nature can also be very fulfilling, when you are alone. All you need is your art supplies, good weather and a quiet place in nature.

Brief instructions

Before painting, you can sit comfortably, put your hand on your sternum, and take a few deep breaths. Then place both hands on your thighs with your palms open and close your eyes. Observe your breath without controlling it and notice how you become calmer and calmer inside. For support, you can place your palms on the earth and ask the earth element to absorb anything that prevents you from entering a thoughtless state. Thoughts will come anyway, but then just try to perceive them, like clouds passing by.

We are all creative by nature and can ask our inner self to give us access to this creativity. Just ask inwardly and from the heart and watch what happens inside you. Then put your attention on your head and feel how your inner energy connects with your environment. There should be a peaceful calm within you that you can stay in for a while. Then open your eyes and start painting. Be in the moment and allow yourself to express yourself freely, without expectations of yourself, just for the sake of painting.

Enjoy!

P.S.: This is not the full meditation we practiced before painting but a little inside. If you would like to learn more about meditation you can find a link just below.