Artfelt - Intuitive Art

It was wonderful to do this commission. It has been a while since I did the last one as I had chosen to focus on a solo exhibition over the past year, honouring two hundred years from the Birth of the Bab, one of the central figures of the Baha’i Faith.  This painting was for someones daughter who I hadn’t met in person. After receiving her name, I allowed a reflective moment on what her piece would be, then I saw beautiful white and soft pink flowers spread out as though they were floating or falling, but they looked like a pattern. I recognised them as the flower of the ‘burning bush’, the holy bramble, as I had used this flower in a painting when I was part of a collaborative exhibition honouring the bicentenary of the birth of Baha’u’llah two years ago.  I looked into this moment of reflection again and I could see a white peacock had appeared from behind the flowers so straight away I recognised that this painting would have spiritual significance. After finishing ...

This painting is about awakening to our higher conciousness, our spiritual reality. This piece began by reading a name someone had written in my enquiry book. I had a stall at a local expo called ‘Nourish Your Soul’ and while I had temporarily left my stall, I had a book for people to use if I wasn’t there. When I picked up the book and saw the name, I suddenly heard the name Shiva and saw a vague vision of a male figure facing me with a circle of circles surrounding him. I was very curious, so even though this person had not asked for a painting, not knowing that much about Shiva, I decided to go ahead with the painting. I had a large canvas at home that I had picked up from the local hospice shop, and it had been painted in acrylic with the word NAMASTE and a lotus flower. This would be perfect to use. So I prepared the painting by going over it with a few coats of white, then I did a couple of coats of gold paint in a brushed effect that reminded me of wood grain.   I rou...

When I was asked to do an intuitive painting for someones daughter, I had a vision of grass with dasies and dandelions. Straight away I was surprised at the simplicity of the image, or rather the commonality. This is a part of nature we often see, as it is literally right beneath our feet. Maybe on a deeper level  it symbolises   her daughters papa kāinga - original home, her whenua - land and her tūrangawaewae - place where one has the right to stand. Papatuanuku - our earth mother, gives us all we need to survive, nutures and sustains us. As children we play on her, we pick the daisies and make daisey chains, climb trees, run over fields, gather kai to eat; she is our nourishment, spiritually and physically.  Although a simple image, to paint grass was quite a challenge. It was almost meditative with the time it took painting many green shoots, the repetitive shapes, forming a blanket of green. I felt an acknowledgement to this gift we have, grass covers much of ou...

When I saw this piece in my mind, I saw a large male stag standing there majestically looking at me. I love the beauty of these animals and was excited to see and paint one. I was curious why this would have come through for this person. I went ahead and tried to paint on canvas the image I had seen. I was aware through out the process of a male father like presence. It was as though the stag represented the commissioners father in some way. I felt a protective male energy that showed a love and loyalty to his family. I was also aware that the stag felt like it was in a New Zealand setting. In the background I painted a deer and its fawn to further enhance the message of protection.   In many cultures the deer symbolises spiritual authority. In traditional Christian symbolism, the deer symbolised piety, devotion and God taking care of his children (humanity), which is similar to the feeling I got from this piece except it was the father taking care of his family. For ...

When I was asked in May 2018 to do an intuitive painting for a friends grandson who was twelve years old, I never expected to recieve a vision of a fish! This was a particular shaped fish, and although I didn't know the kind of fish at the time, it didn't take long to match the right name to the image I saw. I soon found out this fish was the Kuparu also known as the John Dory.  But what relevance does the Kuparu have with this young man? In the research I did next, I came to learn that the John Dory is a coastal fish and is found especially in the East Coast of New Zealand. It so happens that one of the hapu this boy belongs to is Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti, the descendants of Hauiti, from the East coast Region. On the arrival of the British explorer Captain James Cook in 1769 and Tupaia the Tahitian who accompanied Cook on his voyage around the Pacific, this local hapu gifted some Kuparu to the explorers. Several casks of them were pickled.  When his grandmother saw his p...

Sometimes with intuitive painting an image comes to my minds eye but the details are elusive. This time I could see a white bird in flight. I could see the back of the bird with its wings almost reaching upward. But which bird? It looked small and a typical shape, and the words ‘Snow bill’ popped into my head. I looked this up but the closest I found to that name was the Spoon Bill. It didn’t look like this though. I kept looking and found a ‘White Tern’. This is a bird that flies the Pacific Ocean and is beautiful, but it had a black beck - so maybe a bird with a white beck since the words ‘snow bill’ came to me. Then to make it even more confusing, these two birds felt fine to choose…The presence with me was so supportive and happy whatever I choose. It was really nice to experience this kind of joy and gratefulness but I smiled because I still needed to find a bird. I felt a stronger pull towards an American bird, so I tried a white Humming Bird, and yes that felt right, and it had...

To begin with I didn’t realise who this painting was for. I had been asked to do a painting for a long time friend who was soon to move to another town, but I had actually forgotten. When I remembered, I was almost half way through this one, which I thought I was doing just for my own practice, then I realised it was for her all along. I am glad I had started it already so I was able to give it to her before she left. This painting took longer than usual as it was filled with detail. I drew it out initially with nothing in mind, and it grew almost like a diagram with four main sections. I realised that each part represented a different element. The Phoenix was fire, the mermaid/siren - water, Pan, the earth, and a fairie/nymph - air. The eight pointed star I felt was an amalgamation of these elements; the four elements over laping to form this shape representing oneness or unity. I later intuitively received the word 'Elemental' - which at the time I didn't even know w...