3
June
2008
One night, The Painter kept waking up from his sleep. His mind and body was fibrating so highly that his happiness affected his sleep. That condition was similar to his experience in his adolecent period when he heard that the next day he would travel with his parents to another city. Going by train was somethiing new and special.
He got something new and special when he was doing his painting, when he was practicing the techniques of broken colour, under paninting, and dry brush. Mastering those techniques made him have a greater freadom.
With his greater freedom, he was able to break through his mental barrier which had been hindering him to invent a new style of painting, which held him from innovation. The theories of perspective, colour, anatomy, are useful for a painter. Yet, it can be a barrier to make a break through. Mental break through, invention, new experience, success: those were so important for The Painter, and those were the sources of his happiness.
Posted: Painting, creativity, sp
30
May
2008
The Painter made a decition to finish two paintings in a week. The themes and details of those paintings had been in his mind already. But he kept postponing his painting one day his relaxed conition, his mind asked himself why laziness sometimes came and strangled his hands and legs when he was about to start painting. Why he chosed doing reading or laying in bed, day dreaming.
He understood that there was happiness within and beyond the painting process. He knows that the happiness got enough power to attract him to start painting. He understood that. But why for almost a week laziness had kept him from starting painting.
Then he was aware that laziness was not so bad as many people thought. People tend to appreciate deligence and despise laziness. But The Painter did not thing so. It is true that without deligence, laziness became the master of mind. And if that happens the evolution of human beings would ceas and they would vanish. But laziness is as important as deligence. If there had been no laziness, people would have tend to work too hard, so that they would have ruined their own bodies and minds.
The Painter accepted that laziness is natural, since every thing in this universe tend to be stand still, unless some force makes them move.
What he did was just prepare a canvas while accepting that laziness as natural. But at that moment he needed to break it before it became too much. By one step, preparing a canvas, his laziness did break up, and the road to painting activities was opened. That one step was so important that after that one step his painting activitiy was flowing naturally, and his heart started to taste the sweetness of happiness.
Posted: Leadership, Meditation, Painting, spirituality
28
May
2008
When The Painter stopped painting for two days and set back to study the painting basic tachniques, he found sentences about how important for a painter to have a self critic. The sentences said: “It is an old axiom in painting that it requires two people to paint a picture: a painter to do the painting and another (large) person to knock him senseless before he ruins it. There is more truth than humor in this. In practice, an artist is both of these people, he must be his own ruthless critic.”
For a few minutes he agreed with that statement which was stated by his “teacher”. But his relaxed mind was aware that those sentences contains negative sense. The Painter is aware of the effect of words onto his mind, his cells, and his life.
The Painter agreed of the importance of critic and self critic to produce good paintings. However, instead of a large and ruthless person who is ready to knock him senseless, his critic is a wise mother who allows him to walk alone and dare to make mistakes. Only by daring to make mistakes, to stumble, to fall down, human beings are able to walk. Only by daring to make mistakes The Painter is able to produce better and more creative paintings.
Posted: Leadership, Painting, creativity, spirituality
27
May
2008
The Painter is reviewing the direction of his life by asking questions to his heart: “ What do you mean by “great”? The root of that question is his intention to become a great artist. During his quiet mind the question emerged in his mind, and asked him for a bold answer.
And he needs to have a deffinite answer, since it is a very important thing for the direction of his life. He knows that he wants to be a great painter instead of an ordinary one. But he wants to be free from any body’s judgement. He wants to have his own criteria for his greatness.
Certainly, a great painter is not an artist who stands above other painters or human beings. A great painter respects people regardless of their professions, colours, or languages. A great painter is the one who masters the painting technique as well as respects people and nature. Respect needs undestanding. And understanding needs study.
Studying. The Painter love it, since it is the source of happiness.
Posted: Leadership, Painting, spirituality
24
May
2008
The Painter felt unhappy without understanding its reason. It had just slipped into his heart when he got up in the morning. The unhappiness hindred him from making any activities. When he started his day life by swimming, he felt that people in the swimming pool were so many that they interfered his swimming. His fungal inhabited google blurred his sight and made him go deeper into his unhappiness.
Back home from swimming, he wanted to start painting, start to express the ideas and pictures onto his canvas. But he had not found the book of elephant to study its anatomy, since the day before.
Although at last he found the book, his unhappiness is still dominating his heart. He took a nap for one and a half hours. He had his lunch. But sleeping and eating could not change his unhappiness.
He did not give up. He did not call his unhappiness negative or positive. He just accepted it. It was just like his dark paints in his painting. With his careful treatment it could accentuate a point of interest to produce beauty in his canvas life.
With that acceptance he was able to take a black pencil and a few pieces of paper, and started to make a few sketches for his coming painting. And the sketches gave him some happiness.
In the evening, he called his friends, just to have a chat. One of them was his aikido friend who had had just realized that he is a painter, and she ordered a large painting which depict paddy harvesting.
His acceptance of his feeling, his sketching activities , and his friend’s order of painting had made him back into his life focus and diffused his unhappiness.
Posted: Leadership, Meditation, Painting
