Show your colors... Bloom True

As you know from my previous post, I was lucky to spend the weekend in Flora Bowley's workshop. I'm still in that special space/mood/feeling as I was over the weekend.

You know the feeling you get when you are in company of someone that is authentic and real and present? Amazing, right? That's how I would describe Flora Bowley. She teaches without trying... And as she laughingly said - these were life lessons dressed up as an art workshop. I couldn't agree more. It was so much more than "just" painting. 

What surprised me the most was that while she paints intuitively, she was still able to dissect her method and teach it step by step. Intuitively... but in a way that we can understand, and learn and implement. That was pretty amazing! There were spontaneous applauses after some of her demoes because it was very relaxing to watch her paint and the results after every demo were simply great. 

The workshop was held in a lovely place that recently opened in Berkeley called Teahouse Studio. It is a beautiful, spacious, artistic space that Stefanie Reneé, Mati Rose and Tiffany Moore dreamed up. All three of them were friendly and sweet and made sure that there was an unlimited supply of coffee, tea, fruit and chocolate... not to mention the amazing catered lunches that we enjoyed sitting outside, relaxing in the sun, with the view of a beautiful park...

If you look through my blog you'll notice that I love color and use it freely, so this was happy-land for me! Enjoying the process, painting to interesting music, moving with the flow.... What can be better than doing something where you can't make a mistake? Here are some of the stages of one of my canvases:

This is how it looked when I left the Teahouse studio on Sunday. I knew something was missing on the top... but I didn't know what. After I brought it home and looked at it for a while, it was obvious that it needed a bird. I know, big stretch - me and birds....

Here is the finished piece! It is big.... 30"x30" and bold and colorful and I completely love it.

So, at the end - I think I'm going to thank our dear teacher not only for painting lessons but for something else. I went to the dentist today without the usual horrible anxiety... and I think it's because I implemented some of the things we did and talked about over the weekend (simple yoga moves, breathing techniques, feeling gratitude). Now isn't that something - painting and healing at the same time... Flora Bowley rocks!