Category: Art therapy

Wish Falls Abstract Painting #7

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Wish Falls Water Spring fma

Well, well, well. This is easier than I thought it would be and a lot more fun now that I’m really into it. At first I really struggled and stressed over the idea of pure abstract work. One has to let go, be free to do abstract. They have to let go of everything being in line and perfectly crafted with a big meaning behind it. I do that. I fill pages from edge to edge with details upon details. For me these paintings are ones where I’m holding on to control very tightly. It looks like organized chaos or as I like to say, chaos in color. The truth is, these works of art are so filled with images that I am bound to the painting, even obsessed at times. I love it, don’t get me wrong but there is a lot of holding on to control. With the abstracts I’m learning to let go a little. That’s the whole point of the 10 piece challenge, let go, don’t try to stay in control all of the time. It’ll kill ya, I swear it will. Continue reading “Wish Falls Abstract Painting #7”

art is the reason I’m not crazy

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To the extent that I managed to translate the emotions into images– that is to say, to find the images which were concealed in the emotions– I was inwardly calmed and reassured.

Had I left those images hidden in the emotions, I might have been torn to pieces by them….

Carl Jung

Divided as a Whole SOLD

If I didn’t paint MY WAY, I’d lose my mind. If I didn’t pick up a brush or pencil I’m not quite certain how I’d express deepest emotion. Art is the best medium when there are no words or when words aren’t good enough.  Continue reading “art is the reason I’m not crazy”

Artist Thoughts: Seeing and an Abstract Journey

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Seeing the Lines
I’d like to learn to paint birds and I’d like to learn to paint more abstract pieces such as expressionism, contemporary and modern abstract. I really, really want to do abstract. I recently purchased an art pad that I intend to dedicate to this abstract journey of mine. When I paint an object such as birds, flowers, what have you, I need a photo reference in front of me so that I can see the lines. A long time ago I didn’t paint sunflowers because I couldn’t ‘see’ it in my head. I couldn’t see the lines of the petals.

I found a website that showed step by step how to paint a sunflower. It was some sort of site where the artist painted with the mouse and then the program showed viewers step by step how the artist painted the piece. That is how I learned to ‘see’ the lines of what I wanted to paint. Wish I could remember that link.

I think I may need to get a cheap book of various birds and flowers. Once I can ‘see’ it I can alter it according to the theme of an individual painting, but I’ve got to learn the lines first.

Abstract Freedom of Expression
Continue reading “Artist Thoughts: Seeing and an Abstract Journey”

What the Crows Left Behind

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What the Crows Left Behind fma

‘What the Crows Left Behind” is a surreal scene of empty bodies holding their hands up to the wide spread wings of the largest crow. The sky is a river of color boldly contradicting the color next to it. While some of the bodies are beginning to shape shift and morph into crows, others remain empty.
Feathers encircle a figure in all black, some have the beginnings of white feathers, others black. Continue reading “What the Crows Left Behind”

Purify

Posted on by Faith

Purify = SOLDIts difficult for me to post art therapy pieces here but awhile ago I decided I would. It’s still had though. This piece is art expressing multiple personality disorder. It is a painting showing the need for one of the figures to feel pure or relieved of her burden. The painting shows all the movement, the light, dark, play, rest and chaos inside my head.

In the painting called ‘Purify’ you’ll see hidden people, hidden faces and layer upon layer of color. Sprouting or perhaps bursting forth from the woman’s face is a large white flower. A body rests over her forehead and lays over her eye. The arm leads to the main figure in the middle who is almost in a state of mental rest. With her eyes closed it is as if she’s blocked out the worries of the world and taken a rest. The taller figure beside her is an odd little girl who wears another little girl in a red dress. She creates the Odd Girl’s eyes, nose and hair bow. There are faceless figures and one figure in a box. There are swirls, strikes, smearing and of course flowers. Continue reading “Purify”

Threshold

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Threshold The small art piece shows a white soul standing in front of a tumultuous sky on a black bridge. There is fire raging beside her, a fire that glows in the sky. The sea rages beneath the bridge. The single white, faceless figure stands at her threshold.

This textured, emotional piece is painted on sketchbook paper in acrylics with ink. Though small, it packs an emotive punch with its mix of washed colors and heavy paint strokes. There is swirling blue, white and grey. There are layered brush strokes and haunting color contrasts. Red and orange climb slowly from gray, blue and black. The glow of the orange stops the sky in its tracks. The white ghostly figure on the bridge even has a touch of orange on its side. And there it stands, on the bridge above unsteady waters.

Continue reading “Threshold”

Let Her Fly

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Let Her Fly This piece was created in one night. I took the paper that already had sawdust prepped on it and I began adding shapes and colors.  My goal was to manage some heavy Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms I was having.

I thought to myself, I want to go to sleep, but I can’t. I just kept painting. Painting what? At first I didn’t know but as I focused I knew I wanted a woman in a thick field of flowers with her hair wild in the breeze. I kept painting. Her face was divided, half gold, half multi-colored. Her eyes look up or roll up to the sky. Black birds flutter in some areas but soar in others. Their wings are out strong and high, no hesitation, no fear of flying. There are 8 black birds in all. They’re in the sky, her hair, on her white chest and in the flowers below. Continue reading “Let Her Fly”