The Art of Painting: A Journey of Self-Expression and Balance
- Let’s start with painting in general. Why would you recommend anyone to pick up a brush and start painting?
When I paint, I create, and this deeply fulfills me, making me feel good. Through painting, we express the creative part of ourselves, which balances us in a world that is very mentally oriented. All children paint and create with immense enthusiasm. Then, somewhere along the path of growing up, this shuts down, and especially the school system directs them to completely different areas. Creativity, that childlike joy and playfulness, is not welcomed in school desks. So only a few continue painting, creating. So why painting? To express the creative part of ourselves, joy, and ease, satisfaction in creation itself. Besides, I see in people who learn painting with me that they begin to look at the world differently, more attentively to the images it offers us. Not only does the ability to observe sharpen, but also the ability to feel. Unforeseen worlds are revealed to us, just waiting for us to see them. My experience is that people who start painting find a precious treasure in it. A more fulfilled, balanced life, satisfaction, and inner peace.
- Are there any known benefits of painting (for our health and well-being)?
People who create, paint, feel good and certainly more fulfilled. I have not yet seen a person who paints and is also stressed, nervous, restless, preoccupied with their worries. Even if we start painting with some heavy thoughts, they quickly transform, disappear. As if painting, creating is a way to tune in internally. Quite a few people have devoted themselves to painting when they retired and found not only a hobby but also great satisfaction, which fulfills their lives. In addition, they learn, discover new worlds, expressions, horizons. Well-being and a hobby or profession that internally fulfills you are certainly a good basis for well-being and health.
- How do you feel when you paint?
For me, painting is a very primal feeling, a feeling of deep connection and fluidity, when everything just flows and colors, images pour onto paper, canvas, or wall. At that moment, time stops, and space disappears, yet I am more alive and present than in the constraints of time and space.
- Have you developed the so-called meditative painting? What is it and is every painting in its own way meditative?
This method happened quite naturally. When black clouds piled up, I took oil pastels in my hands and poured my feelings onto paper. Then with liquid watercolor, which allows for quick painting with strong colors (with colors, we easily express emotions, feelings). I made as many paintings as necessary for all the content to “empty.” In the end, I felt completely different. Liberated, light. Solutions also appeared. So, I developed this way of painting, which I call Meditative Painting. It’s hard to say that every painting is meditative; if we are very focused on the result, how the painting will turn out, how we will please others, how it will be accepted, we are far from it. The more we surrender to creation and free ourselves from attachment to the result, the more fluid and allowing we are, the closer we are to this method. What I call Meditative Painting is a shortcut, a tool on this path to our own expression.
- What is most important for us to be aware of when painting?
The essential thing in meditative painting is to calm our mind. We do this by focusing on the body and the sensations we perceive, on breathing. If possible, we do this barefoot. When thoughts want to escape us, we can help ourselves by directing attention to the body, the sensation in the feet, and breathing. I ask myself, what do I feel? How does my body feel? Where do I feel tension? I wait for the body’s response and just accept, breathe. When I feel it, I take pastel or brush in my hands and start painting. In meditative painting, the creative process is important, not the painting itself. Like small children create. With great joy and enthusiasm for creation itself. They don’t even think that someone might not like it. And that’s right. I prefer to paint in nature, barefoot, to feel the earth under my soles. Nature is my inspiration, a teacher, and at the same time, it fully supports me.
- You often emphasize that we must paint with the heart and not with the mind and that whether our painting is beautiful is least important. Why?
When we paint with the mind, we have an idea of how this painting should look, so we control the creative process, which does not flow well. Such painting is more about fulfilling some ideas about how something should look, thus satisfying primarily our ego, the desire for confirmation. I am attracted and convinced by the painting that is sincere, deep, and the attractiveness remains on the surface, maybe attractive for a short time, then we get tired of it.
- What does otherwise the painting we paint tell about ourselves? Can we learn something about the author’s character from the picture someone draws? What, for example?
Certainly, every painting is a perfect reflection of the author. Even if the picture is meticulously controlled. And if we look at it carefully, it tells about the person’s character, experiencing the world, feelings they had while painting, but also about the painter’s painting skills and skills in pictorial expression. And every picture carries within it also the energetic imprint of all the above, the author himself. That’s why we go to galleries. Not only to admire the painting skill and expression of old masters, through artworks, we can feel the author himself, his inspiration, and the creative process through which the masterpiece was created. So, each picture is, in a way, a portal that takes us into the author’s world.
- How should someone who may not have drawn or painted since childhood start painting?
I often meet people who have a desire to paint, create, but do not know how to start because they have not done it since childhood. They mostly have a bunch of limiting beliefs, such as that they cannot, do not know how, that it is something unattainable, what others will think or say, etc. My advice is for them to first free themselves from these limitations. Find in themselves that child who painted with endless enthusiasm and joy without the need for confirmation. Because of creation itself. When someone really does that, the creative process quickly flows, and I am always witnessing exceptionally rapid progress and astonishment at their work, at what they can actually create. Above all, they really enjoy painting. The easiest way to start is for someone to show us the basics of a certain technique, watercolor, acrylic, oil, … I suggest going to a painting course, where they will get the basics, then they can upgrade it, explore further on their own. Those who are more resourceful can find many tips on the internet as well. Those who want to progress quickly should find a mentor painter who will guide them into the magical worlds of expression through image. When someone guides us through the process, we learn faster, we master painting skills easier, and he will be able to guide you so that you will progress quickly and also find your own expression.
Article writen by journalist: Lara Jelen
