Gratitude Rocks

See our latest art practice where we teach how to paint colorful patterns and create “gratitude rocks.” The process allows us to focus, slow down and ease anxiety. I share different painting techniques and designs. Painting lines and shapes and playing with color is a mindful meditation.

I am definitely a person who is “on the go” and moving forward busy with lots of ideas. This practice is helping me not to move forward as much but sit in the present and appreciate this moment. To think about where I am. ⁣My hope for the gratitude rocks was also this. I am trying to help us slow down, pause, paint a simple pattern and take the time to enjoy the stillness and the time for self reflection. What do you guys think? What helps you slow down and practice this?

Flower Mandala

This art lesson makes a beautiful flower mandala. It’s a meditative practice where we arrange a piece of art with petals, take a photo, and then let it be. We practice embracing the beauty of impermanence, letting go and being in the present moment.

Spending time in nature can bring a sense of peace and relaxation. Nature can help calm and slow down your mind. Gathering flowers and looking for beauty will provide our active meditation. 
Go for a walk. Look at the exuberant color that is bursting this spring. Gather flowers that speak to your soul. Small moments of beauty. They can be delicate. This can involve pebbles, flowers, leaves. Don’t take too many but think about creating an arrangement with what is readily available.In making your mandala, start in the center. Start laying out the flowers around it in a circle.

What I love about this practice is its ephemeral nature. This is something that I need to embrace more. Appreciating the value in something in the short time it exists and being ok with its impermanence. I’m learning to value beauty when I see it, and try to minimize expectations for the future or regrets about the past. Even now, during quarantine, I’m thinking of the past and the future rather than sitting here in the present. I need to absorb it and appreciate it better. Somehow these practices, slowing down and having patience to arrange a mandala flower by flower, petal by petal, are helping me with the present. ⁣

STEPS⁣

• Take a moment + write down in a notebook several words that describe your current state of mind.⁣ Notice the pace of your thinking, moving, walking. ⁣

• Then go for a walk for an hour. Put away your cell phone for that one hour, so you won’t be distracted by anything other than where you are. ⁣

• Look around you.⁣
  What colors do you see?⁣
  What shapes intrigue you?⁣

• Pick up little treasures along the way that attract you: a twig, a flower, a leaf, a piece of bark, stones.⁣ After an hour, notice how you feel.⁣

• When you’ve gathered up enough materials, find an area you’ll feel completely comfortable and at ease to make your mandala.⁣

• Start from the center and build outwards. The mandala can be a circle, square, diamond, whatever suits you!⁣ Keep building or changing the design up until you're completely happy with your beautiful creation.⁣

• When the time comes to part ways with your mandala, you can leave it for strangers to enjoy, return all of the little treasure back to where they came from or make a flower offering. The choice is yours!

Sun Prints

In continuing our Art with Nature series, this exercise has us making art in our backyard. We are teaching a special photographic process called Cyanotypes, or making sun prints. The process is a magical method where the sun exposes the shapes of the pants. It creates a permanent pattern based on a temporary moment.

Nature heals. Breathing in the air, holding nature in our palms provides a connection to the natural world. We pause. We are calmed. We focus on the moment at hand.

Have fun with arranging these plants on your sun paper. Think about their shapes and the composition of the page. What is a pleasing way of creating this garden bouquet?

Sunprints are our favorite things to make. Printing with the sun and plants is a meditative process that allows us to surrender to the moment. We embrace the unknown and await the discovery of what will be revealed.

STEPS⁣⁣

• Gather supplies. Purchase sunprint paper.⁣⁣

• Gather plants.⁣⁣

• Practice arranging plants before taking sunprint paper out.⁣⁣

• In dark room, put plants and paper under glass. Clip together.⁣⁣

• Bring outside into sunlight. Mid day works best.⁣⁣

• Leave in the sun (expose) for 1-2 minutes.

• The blue will turn brown.⁣⁣

• Unclip and quickly put into tub of water.⁣⁣

• Watch your image get exposed.⁣⁣

• Wash off solution and take out of water to dry.⁣⁣

• Add a splash of hydrogen peroxide to darken the color.⁣⁣

Shadow Drawings

Let’s connect and make art together. We start with drawing shadows from nature. This video teaches how to begin a meditative art practice while drawing shadows from the sun. We believe art is a practice to inspire self-awareness, ease anxiety, and promote personal growth. During a time where many circumstances outside of our control fuel anxiety, we turn to art as a tool for healing and bringing calm into the world.

Where do we even start? Creativity can be a challenge, as the hardest step is usually the first step. So, we decided to make it simple. You can start with a piece of paper, some flower or plant and a pencil. Go outside. Soak in the light and the sunshine. If there is no sunshine, grab a light and look at the wonderful world unfolding under your gaze. Shadows are the most magical things. They transform reality into a two dimensional form. Simple and beautiful. And so, this week’s practice uses the sun to trace shadows and draw nature. 

Our video shows how to draw with nature using shadows and plants. Drawing contours is a simple but very effective meditation. Let your pencil guide you as you trace around the shapes. Drawing eases anxiety and calms your mind through the meditative process. Let your hands lead and your mind follow. Make and don’t overthink!