There have been three essential sources of inspiration in the creation of this collection 

The first source is Buddhist meditation.

The second is a desire to investigate a deeper connection with the earth.

The third is to explore a path of creativity that is expressed in a primal manner, moving towards intuition, and moving away from formalities.

 

The use of colour, space, form, and direct experience as a primal expression is fundamental in the way that I want to share my creativity with others at this time, to go where words cannot. For a moment, to be at one with primal essence.

The Buddha mind is inherently empty. Pristinely clear like a diamond, it grasps at nothing: Sunyata.

 

The connection with the earth is emerging from a growing desire to spend as much time in nature as possible. I’m often filled with a sense of belonging, amazement, and good fortune when walking in the forests, mountains, or being by the sea. Life becomes even more abundant and joyful! It allows me to find stillness and rest in flow more easily. Nature offers spaciousness and an opportunity to merge with the experience more fully without a need for labelling anything, to simply experience the feeling of being and belonging.

Finding time to explore and go a little deeper into the experience of connection to the earth, to walk with my bare feet in the soil, grass, or sand or do walking meditations in a sky-like state is a big part of why I have made these paintings. To feel nature and my body’s vibrant relationship with it. This connection with the soil has made me even more aware of how precious the earth is and how much abundance lies at our feet.

 

A few words about this collection of 12 Sunyata paintings; it was important to me that each one expresses a unique energetic characteristic or mood, generated through the subtle blends of colour and the use of two opposing textural plains.

I also wanted to continue my exploration into the use of soil in the pigment as a way to deepen a sense of connection with the earth. When making these paintings, I’m often processing my feelings and thoughts and letting them go as I enter or get close to meditative states. The process of making the paintings can be extremely meditative and therapeutic and at other times reveal subconscious triggers in the mind stream that can offer the opportunity to let go further. The paintings can imbue the beholder with their energetic response which may lead to a meditative or therapeutic experience.

 

I’m particularly interested in the effect the painting can have upon the mental states one brings to the picture when observing it and how the infusion of the painting with the mind can have a positive effect. Ultimately, the viewer's awareness of their response is perhaps all that the painting is asking of us. So, they offer the opportunity for introspective observation or relaxed meditation.

 

With the ground and path of Dzogchen in mind, The fields of colour and plains of texture do something, they can alert us to our thoughts and invite us to let them go, to simply abide and relax into the ground of our experience or we may struggle away, wrestling with our thoughts as we observe the painting with a sense of disconnection.

Can the painting act as a beacon to flag up our chattering mind and can we allow ourselves to distinguish thoughts as transitory and without substance, even those that hold a view of the paintings?

So, perhaps they are a meditative device. More than a painting, they offer a sacred moment of meditation or introspection.

 

“The Contemplation of pure colour holds pleasures too numerous to name. In fact, there is an intense elation in allowing awareness of colour to flood the mind”

(Patrick Heron 1969)