Move Your Body :: Move Your Brush

One of the main elements of FEARLESS® Painting is “paint like a five year old”–and boy does this one get people in a tizzy!

The first thing most artists generally think is that they’re being invited to paint the things they did when they were five.

Honestly, I don’t see the point in that.

Instead, what FEARLESS® Painting is inviting you to do is to paint LIKE you did when you were five.  You know, back in the days when you’d pour your whole body into the experience.

When you’d move your brush as if you were doing it for your country in the world Olympics of painting!

Imagine closing your eyes, swaying your hips, and sticking your tongue out as you paint with both hands–that kind of painting.

And most of all, painting like a five year old means you think it, do it, and then let it go.
Ba.  Bye.

The perfect example is my little guy Phoenix!  When he was finished with his drawing he told me that he drew a seat and a basketball and then ran away to do something else.

Yep.  That’s what it means to be painting like a five year old in FEARLESS® Painting.

Now, don’t get me wrong…..I’m not implying that the answer is a bunch of scribbles–but sometimes it is.

I’m NOT even asking you to be half-ass or NOT take your time working on something.  Noway, that would be ridiculous to ask as well.

Instead, in FEARLESS® Painting I’m inviting you to untangle yourself from expectations.  I’m encouraging you to allow that blessed flow of creative energy to move through you and out in whatever form, fashion, or mark IT wants to be in that moment.

And for some of us, that moment consists of years and years of experience, practice and training–and for some of us, that moment consists of just picking up the brush for the first time since we were five, forty years ago!

But it doesn’t matter how much experience you have or don’t have.  Both moments I mentioned above contain a lot of garbage attached to them.

Believe me.

But when we practice painting with that beautiful abandon we were born with–that is buried inside all of us–and most importantly that is always nonjudgemental and gentle–we open up our hearts and energy to a world of such freshness, space, and joy.

We let creativity out and healing in.

Now, it doesn’t mean you’re always gonna like what you painted any more.

But you might be a bit easier on yourself.

You might discover little pockets of forgiveness for who you are and where you are in your life and most importantly how your expression is showing up at this moment.

And I don’t know about you, but a little self-acceptance and genuine self-love is worth more to me than any perfectly painted portrait.

So how do I start?  What’s a great way to get painting like a five-year-old again?

Here are three simple ways to remind your body and heart just what it feels like to paint like a five-year-old.

•  Do a whole painting using your nondominant hand.  If you are a righty–use your left and vice versa.

• Paint standing up to music that makes you move your body and allow the music to guide your brushstrokes.  Put your whole self into it–don’t hold back!

• Create a painting in only fifteen minutes top.  Then do a painting in ten minutes, five minutes, three, and one.

I encourage you to use these little tips as warm up exercises and see if you break up any of that stuffy energy and blockages that keep you from painting FEARLESS!

This Fall I will be teaching a course called Move Your Body :: Move Your Brush that will go deeper into the whole “paint like a five year old” element of FEARLESS® Painting and encourage all of us to be a bit more kinder and gentler with ourselves and our unique expression.

My course is part of a much bigger and amazing line-up of artists, healers, and visionaries that Hali Karla has gathered together for a ten-month art journal workshop called SPECTRUM.

SPECTRUM starts March 1st and you can go HERE to my affiliate link to learn more and register. I look forward to art journaling with many of you there!