“When I’m in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing” – Jackson Pollock
On day three a local artist came to Sangsura to help us create some masterpieces. Again, the focus was on the process, and not the final output. She did two activities with us.
Individual canvas
We were each given a small canvas, some paints, and one hour to create an artwork. I took my time with my canvas and spent 45 minutes carefully placing brushstrokes and laying colours to create the painting below.
Not wanting to become too attached to the output, I waited five minutes for the paint to dry, and then spent ten minutes frantically slapping down paint to create another artwork. Previously I never would have covered up something I spent so long on, but it was quite liberating to undo all of my work. I got so caught up on this concept I was temped to slap a layer of white over my canvas at the very end so that I finished where I started.
Group artworks
Sitting in a circle, we were each given a piece of paper and 90 seconds to make our mark on it. At the end of the 90 seconds we handed our paper to the right and started the whole process again. We did this until each person had contributed to each painting.
What started as a game of Mr Squiggle, soon turned us all into graffiti artists as we ran out of blank canvas and started painting over our neighbours’ work. What resulted were fifteen colourful, layered, and unique masterpieces that were co-created by the entire group. It was lovely. As we worked, the energy in the room was joyous, playful, merry, and intoxicating. It didn’t matter your age, ability, marital status, political alignment, or religion. All contributions were welcome. Perhaps this would be another good activity for the next G20 summit?
———————————————————————————————————————————–
Kate James is a coach, mediation teacher, speaker, and writer. Through her business, Total Balance, Kate helps people believe in themselves so they feel confident to do what they love. If you’d like to take yourself on a retreat, but don’t have the time or money to go away, Kate has written a lovely post about how to create your own mini-retreat here.
ELM Creative 
Pingback: Kate James’ Creativity Retreat: introduction | ELM Creative