Reviewing CVP

This is my first year as a student of the Creative Visionary Program offered by Art2Life by painter Nicholas Wilton. It’s time to review what happened in my art experience over those 13 weeks.

How I’m Different

Today I have a robust daily art practise that involves multiple works in progress. I have just created an inventory system and cataloged my work since March 1 and discovered 45 paintings created in that time! I’m quite amazed – I have never seen this kind of painting productivity! I have gained many skills and techniques that I never learned in art school.

Mindset Rules (v)

The best set of tools I’ve acquired are all about Mindset. I’m no stranger to setting intentions, using positive self talk, and letting go of the outcome. But I’ve been able to apply these more powerfully. I banished so much mental baggage and it’s made made a big difference.

Here are some of those “rules:”

• You don’t need hours and hours, just drop in for 15-20 minutes when you can, as often as you can.
• My art can only be made by me. I AM my style.
• Experiment. Play, and go ahead and Ruin Things. You can always make them again!
• Trust your Intuition.
• Respond to what’s in front of you.
• Don’t ruminate, worry, or analyze your art unless you are right in front of it.

My Inspiration Board

In Week 1 we dove in to our Inspiration boards. You’ve probably done some version of this exercise: collage together found images, words, colors, etc that explore/express your vision. In this case, “What Inspires You?”

I didn’t have any pretty magazines, and frankly those glossy images didnt appeal to me. So using my trusty b&w laser printer I found troves of natural pattern images including scientific illustrations, plant, animal and landscape forms, maps, aerial views, a few headlines and geometric images. I had a blast putting all this together (It’s big: 20 x 28) and then added color with some transparent paint.

As an art image, its a mess! chaotic, but it has some flow. Busy, but every item has meaning. The words were few but powerful. What I needed appeared. New symbols like the egg emerged. Water flows through it, tying it together. And the somewhat hasty get-this-done color choices were ultimately quite important.

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Here are 18 thumbnails from the 29 panels I started in CVP2021

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Two recently finished panels

So many elements of the Inspiration Board are appearing in the panels throughout the course. Despite assignments, experiments, and meanderings, the seeds of my own energy and painterly sensibility are all there, and thread throughout all these paintings.

This is a powerful example of how we can use tools like vision boards to explore our own subconscious for things we already know, and guide us into trusting the way forward into the unknown.