After living so many years of my life in synch with the school calendar, September always feels like the beginning of the new year for me. This makes me think back to my New Year's resolutions of last January.

For a while it works. Flowers, rainbows, balloons - the painting is light and free. But after a while the painter runs out of energy. When I check in, the conversation goes like this:
Me: How is it going?
Painter: I'm making a happy painting.
Me: How are you feeling as you paint?
P: I'm feeling sad and heavy.
Me: Could you let some of that show up in your painting?
P: But I want it to be happy! I don't want to ruin it!
Me: You did paint happy. But this is process painting. Could you let your current feeling show up in the painting too?Usually the painter agrees. New, darker images appear but instead of ruining the painting, it becomes richer, more complex, and more satisfying.

So this is what I am learning from process painting this month:
My life may not always be happy but it is beautiful.

Wonder what it is like to spend an entire weekend painting? At the Fall 2015 Intensive, participants made this painting to capture their experience.

As you can see, it was complex experience with images of growth, movement and calm. The words that came up the most were "Joy" (three times) and "Love" (twice). It is a safe space ("Trust" and "Acceptance"). It can also be a quiet, meditative activity, as you connect to your own experience and translate it, without words, into color, line and shape with painters describing it as "Peaceful", "Mindfulness", "Silence", "Inward" and "Grounded"

With more time for the workshop, paintings have time to unfold - to move beyond the first impulse into something more complex, more interesting, and more surprising. There is also more time for the underlying skills of process painting - giving yourself permission,over-riding the critical impulse and allowing your creativity and intuition to blossom. Finally, there is time for fun - Be Big! Use Glitter! Make a Mess! Do What Makes You Happy!