One of the many reasons I enjoy creating my particular type of artwork relates to the basis for what I use as a "canvas:" Beach stones.
And since I use beach stones, I spend many a day walking around on our local beaches, looking for the perfect stones to paint.
There's something profoundly healing about being at water's edge, regardless of whether it's cold and gray, or a sunny summer day. In some ways, gray winter days are my favorite because I have the beach pretty much to myself.
A stormy winter's day
There's More to it Than Meets the Eye!
Some people might look at what I do and think "yeah, so you go pick up a few rocks — big deal!" but there's really more to it than that.
For starters, even though I walk on beaches that are often completely covered in loose stones, only a tiny tiny fraction of beach stones are suitable for painting.
More than a decade of doing this has taught me how to hone in on the more promising ones, simply by the way they reflect light when wet, and by their color.
The thing is, even what appears to be a completely smooth stone rarely is. When looked at closely, most stone surfaces are riddled with tiny cracks and fissures... and paint (being a liquid) will find every tiny crack and valley and "feather" in multiple directions.
Given the extreme accuracy needed to execute an intricate mandala design, very few stones actually "make the cut" and end up in my bag to go home.
By the time all is said and done, I'd guess that maybe 5% of the stones I pick up and look at actually qualify.
You can't get this level of detail unless the stone's surface is perfectly smooth!
There's More to it Than Meets the Eye, Part II
It has always been a challenge for me to explain "spiritual art" to the greater world. I still don't have a good "elevator speech" for it... even after more than a decade of trying.
But at least part of the process can be described in terms of any given stone also needing to have the right feel; the right energy signature. Maybe that's too "woo-woo" for many people, but it is part of the process, given that many of the finished pieces end up in the hands of people who use the stones for meditation, or centerpieces in their personal sacred spaces, or Chakra Balancing or a number of other things.
I won't get into details about "how it works" or "whether it works," as I am simply the person who creates what might become a sacred object or healing tool.
I like to think of it with this analogy: I am simply the master gardener who grows a certain kind of "herbs" but I am not the person who "creates the potions" that end up working as medicine.
Finished work
But Back to the Beach...
The importance of the beach as a crucial first step in the creative process is that it both relaxes me and also sets the stage by creating the appropriate "mood" to use as the foundation for creating spiritually based art.
In a sense, when I feel relaxed and healed, that feeling can be conveyed through the stones I pick up to paint... and which will then be passed on to the final owner.
Thanks for reading!
Because I am trying to make some semblance of income — a living, even — I now add this footer to all my posts, in the hope that someone, somewhere, might decide to take a further look at my work, and perhaps consider supporting independent art.
Thank you, in advance, for your consideration and support!
My Alchemy Stones Patreon appeal
Alchemy Stones web site and blog
Thank you for supporting independent art!
2021.02.12 AS-TXT-048/014
Beautiful. Experiencing a lot of upset at the moment as we are in lockdown and not allowed to travel more than 5 km - and my beach, that I go to every day, is 30 km away. There goes my mental health plan.
Wow, that's strict. Sorry to hear that... here we're OK as long as we stay within the county AND we don't visit anyone, other than medical appointments. But it's not like they are pulling people over and handing out fines...
What's a beach? I haven't been to the sea since May or June last year. Although, we have river beaches here, so now I think of it, I have visited a beach or two in the last months.
I feel for you, though @riverflows as I know how much the sea and surfing mean to you and forbidding people to go to the beach or a park is pure craziness to me xx
Wow the sea is so healing, we really need to be around water and I feel it if I don't get to a river or lake regularly. Your art work is so beautiful I image you really do need to be in a meditative state to find the perfect stone.
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There's just something very soothing and healing about water... I have never felt well being far from the sea. Did live 250km inland for some years, but at least I was by a river so that made it bearable.
Very interesting read and those mandala stones look beautiful. Nice to see this other ( arty ) side of you. I guess you live pretty close to the coast in Denmark? May I ask, where exactly?
We do live pretty much ON the coast... it's about 100 yards to the waterfront. Actually, our coast these days is in the US Pacific Northwest, Washington state. But I grew up on the beach in Denmark.
Ah, I see ( US ) not Denmark and wow, that's close indeed. I myself have to make do with rivers these days. Some days I miss the sea as it reminds me of The Netherlands.
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