Slow Painting Is My Everyday Mindfulness Practice
Jane’s Hydrangea, Oil on Linen, 24 x 24”
I am a slow painter. Each painting takes 3 – 8 weeks to complete, depending upon the size of the canvas. But that is just the actual painting time. I work on a painting “behind the scenes” for as long as a year – gathering flowers when they are in season, photographing them in early morning light, playing with the composition, changing my mind, and beginning again.
I paint slowly by necessity because I paint in multiple glazed layers of oil paint – but more importantly, I paint slowly by intention. My devotion to slow painting anchors and steadies me, which is a wondrous thing in our increasingly noisy, fast-paced world.
Slow painting is one of the ways I carry mindfulness with me throughout my day. I wake early and begin the day with a cup of coffee or a matcha latte and a quiet period of meditation. The tone of my day is set with this time of stillness, and my slow painting practice is another way of being entirely in the present moment as I work. I do not push away my intuition that tells me to add another yet layer of violet to a shadow, and I do not try to rush and paint “faster.” I cannot hurry the unfolding of beauty.
Victoria’s Beauty, Oil on Linen, 24 x 36”
Painting flowers SLOWLY brings the same gifts to my life as meditation. When I take the time to look deeply at a flower as I paint it, I am awakened from the deep sleep of busy-ness and see the wonder of this flower, this sunlight, this breeze, this sky, this NOW. If someone could watch me paint for a full day, I’m sure they would think, “She doesn’t seem to be DOING very much. She paints for a while, then stops and sips tea, and then just stares at the painting. And then she does it all over again.” And that is exactly right. I may not be DOING much, but I am BEING a lot.
