The Painting Experience Blog
Letting Creativity Support Your Well-Being
As individuals, we who are affiliated with The Painting Experience are among millions of concerned people who actively support basic freedoms and rights—for immigrants, for women, for the environment, for anyone who lacks access to the fundamental resources they need....
Process Art: Antidote to a Product Oriented World
I recently found myself explaining to a fellow architect who is also a professional painter the difference between product-based painting and process painting. Articulating the difference helped me to understand how profoundly I have been trained to look to “the...
The Courage to Create
Process painting gifts us with many insights and understandings that become landmarks in our own personal journey. It's not a narcissistic activity, as some might think, because by working on ourselves, we are working on the world. In the mirror of painting, our...
A Glimpse of the Process
Every painting is unique and the process is different from person to person, day to day, even moment to moment. What follows is an exploration of the development of one painting through the lens of spiritual practice. The beginning of a painting can be many things....
Process Painting in the Classroom
This way of painting is about taking risks, having an adventure, being free to explore and try new things. It’s an honor and a privilege for me to facilitate process painting in classrooms: To watch as a child faces the fresh white sheet of paper with a sense of...
A Few of Our Favorite Videos
We have a big workshop underway at the Esalen Institute this week. So large, in fact, that it outgrew the space where Stewart usually shows films to participants. (If you've been to one of our programs, you know how this works: During a weekend workshop, you'll...
You Can’t Manage the Mystery
The good news is that nothing works. There is simply no way to manage the mystery. The beginning of a painting workshop holds a special poignancy. People of many ages, backgrounds and degrees of experience have committed their time and energy to an inner exploration...
How Will We Greet This World?
Earlier this month, the facilitators and affiliates of The Painting Experience came together for a week at Still Meadow Retreat Center outside of Portland, Oregon for our annual gathering. This is a time for us to explore the experiences we’ve had during the year...
Stillness
To look within is an act of courage. To be with yourself exactly where you are can be anything from mundane to blissful to almost intolerably uncomfortable. To be present requires letting go of judgment. In order to truly explore, there needs to be a stillness in...
The Illusion of Control
There’s a pointing mechanism in the painting process: When we attempt to control, aliveness and vitality diminish, and this reads back to us through our experience—tiredness, boredom, conflict, and judgment. The illusion of control projects the desired outcome on one...