Intuitive painting as spiritual practice

I stumbled upon Shelley Klammer’s website. (click HERE to see it for yourself).  Where she talks about several intuitive art practices.  I have enjoyed playing around with them. 

The idea of doing any intuitive practice is, of course, to improve your own intuitive skills.  Intuition can aid in healing old wounds and in giving clues about living our current life too.  We all have intuitive insights now and again but the purpose of this practice is to encourage more of them.  The more you begin to trust your own intuition, the more often it will occur, and you will learn to value it.  So, to participate in this practice, you must first commit yourself to listening to the edge of your conscious mind.  If you want to, you can identify an open-ended question that you would like to hold while doing this painting.  Questions such as “what do I need to know about _________?”  “What do I need more of in my life?”  “How can I be more powerful and effective?”  It is not necessary to form a question… only if that appeals to you.

Then gather some simple art supplies – can be as simple as a box of Crayola crayons and a piece of paper. Or you might use any art materials you have on hand;  paint, markers, pens, colored pencils…. then, quiet yourself.  When you feel grounded, you invite your intuitive mind to inform your painting.  You promise to “listen for each next step”.  When you have quieted your mind, and invited your intuition, you slowly open your eyes and wait to “know” which mark making tool and what color to use.  You can do the painting with your eyes open or closed, with your dominant or non-dominant hand.  You begin to make marks on the page until you are “finished” with that color.  Wait to see what your intuition tells you to do next.  Which color, what kind of shape, where on the page.  Remember that you are not making a painting, you are training yourself to follow your intuition.  When you notice yourself making judgments (I like this, I don’t like that, there’s no reason for this, etc.) just quiet yourself and say “I deeply love all parts of myself”.  And wait again, until your intuition tells you what to do next.  Keep doing this until your intuition tells you that you are finished.  Stop and breathe.

Behold what you have created.  All creative endeavors are sacred.  You have put something into the world that wasn’t there before.  Then Kammer suggests the following ways to “process” what you have painted;

1)     How does the painting make you feel?  How did you feel when your were painting it?

2)    Find your least favorite part and ask yourself what disturbs you about that part.

3)    Find your favorite part and ask yourself how does it please you?

4)    Contemplate your current life situation and see what this painting “tells” you about that situation.  Or, does it shed any light on the question you held as you painted?

5)    Add a title, or a clarifying word – or leaf through a magazine and find a phrase to cut out and add to the page.

Hold it all lightly.  It is a practice of playing with your intuition.  Like all spiritual practices, it is best if you do it more or less regularly – once a week? month? season?  Happy art-making!