February: Healing Art . . .

TIP OF THE MONTH

Hi dear friends, so here’s a gentle hello for this month of February.

I am feeling grateful. In all senses of the term. My parents both have undergone full on Covid. My mother was hospitalized mostly because of her Dementia and fairly quickly was released to an after care hotel. The day that she was released from the hospital, my father, was admitted. He developed a lung infection at home. He is still in the hospital gaining strength and starting to walk again as I write.

This is my inspiration for today’s gentle art exercise. It stems from my background as an art therapist. Art therapy is at the core of all painting excersises that I offer in the studio. The exercise for today is a blended art therapy inspiration with intuitive painting, mainly in the usage of watercolors for a change to acrylic paints. Note: Of course, all art is healing, however some art is more physical in nature and requires more energy to create it.

This is for you in every phase of life. You may especially enjoy it if you are feeling low with energy. . .for whatever reason. It can be that feeling of a third lockdown that just took the wind away. . .perhaps you are in one of the Covid phases, or perhaps you have always been curious to try out . .. or return to he medium of watercolors.

This invitation is to paint with watercolors on wet paper. If you don’t have watercolors available, you can use whatever paints you do have available (as long as you can dilute it with water. . .like Acrylic or tempera paints). I do want to add that professional water colors give more energy through the quality of pigments. . .color intensity. The student and kid grade watercolors can be used too, however there is typically less pigment in these paints, allowing them to be generally more economic. It’s kind of a get what you pay for idea.

The idea is to dabble colors onto the wet paper and then see what happens, where you are inspired. Play with brush strokes, more water, more paint. The secret with water colors is about layers. Layer over layer creates a richer color. They are easily mixed too as one color flows and blends in with the other. So just keep on playing and experimenting. Enjoy the flow.

For some bonus points, as you are painting, it’s a great moment to be aware of your breathing. You can synchronize your breathing with your brush strokes. Experiment with how it feels like to breath in as you move the brush towards you and vice versa.

Depending on your energy, if you feel like adding any forms or figuration especially once the first layers of color is on the paper.  Remember that the water will start to move the colors around a bit. As the paper starts to dry, forms will start to keep their shape. Take the time to see how it wants to flow. Remember, there is no right way or wrong way to your own exploration. Enjoy the ride.

There are plenty of water color techniques that you can dive into after this initial exploration of the medium. My favorite are this wet on wet technique, as it is called, and working with veils. I’ll make a mental note to show this technique. It’s quite specific as layers of thin veils are layered over each other, leaving a quite mystical impression.

On another art note, my first public art sculpture for 2021 is all layer out on the studio floor. See the end of the video above, or more on my instagram account @daniellarubinovitz. It will be installed in the Price Sculpture Forest on Whidbey Island in Washington State. 

At the studio I am offering Zoom pop up painting classes for individual (pop up) and Zoom team building workshops for companies.

Let’s stay in contact about how we might collaborate together.

x Daniella

Do give the tip of this month a go, at the end of this newsletter. Feel free to contact me to explore your next chapter together, regardless of location. Skype, Whattsap Video, Zoom and Facetime at our fingertips, locations know no boundaries!

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