Welcome to the blogspace!

Click on the post title to view and to leave comments. Thank you!

Published on
"10,000 Circles Meditation" - mixed media on watercolor paper, 22" x 15".  Ready to frame.  Available here.

Let's meander into the realm of abstraction, and one kind of  process to get you started.  Today's inspiration is courtesy of artist extraordinaire Dianne Nance, who assigned this as homework and got my brain twirling. 

Take a photo you love....like this one, of my big buddha and one of my favorite paintings  (a VETHOMSON, of course) reflected in the mirror (below).
Picture
Picture
Reprint the photo in black and white and make a value sketch over top of the photo with some parchment paper.  The result with be a nicely abstracted version of your photo, which you can use as a blueprint for your painting.
Picture
You know me, dear reader, and so you understand that things tend to wander a bit during my process, right?

And so this one wandered into the land of zen doodling (or "jentanglement", as I like to call it) and within a few days about 10,000 tiny circles appeared.  I was lost in the circling, not really paying attention to anything else, which is what generally happens when I doodle. :)  So my abstraction project became a giant meditation instead.

​I am examining my photo collection now with new eyes.  Each has the potential to become abstracted.  Shapes and negative spaces
I may not have noticed before are suddenly jumping out.  When the details are blurred, the composition becomes clear.

But enough of all this seriousness!  Maybe you need a little doodle meditation to start your day?  What's cuter than 30 cute faces?
6 Comments
Dotty Seiter - 8 years ago
Jen! Love that you doodled your way into 10K meditative circles, that you started a project and then became thoroughly fully totally jentangled. To magnificent effect!

And thanks for the 30 DOO DLE FACES, which became a meditation for me : )
jen - 8 years ago
doodle all the live long day. There is nothing quite so zen. And if it happens to become part of art, so be it! ha ha!
Carol Edan - 8 years ago
I am mind-boggled! First I see you image of the Himalayas on FB, and now your Buddha! Thinking I'll do a one from one of photos the kids sent. It's the closest I'll get. I just finished a small Buddha sketch myself! Part of the Sketchbook Revival program. I know its not good to compare, but yours is so.... can't quite find the word. Love how he is meditating near a painting,,brilliant! Thought the sudject, Bhudda to a little tacky... but yours is far from that!
jen - 8 years ago
we are channeling our zen this week, Carol!!! I want to see your buddha sketch! The photo of my buddha is from my bathroom, so this is the view I walk into each day. It makes me take a deep breath and relax. The abstracted buddha in the painting seems much more like a warrior trying to behave, which would be more like me. Feisty and not so calm. ha ha!
Stan Kurth - 8 years ago
Don't tell anyone Jen, but most my of my process is doodle oriented (maybe you suspected that anyway).
jen - 8 years ago
STAN!!!!!! Just one more reason why I love what you do. I can feel your doodled zen gently breathing through all you create. :)

Author

Lola Jovan

Picture

Learn more about Lola!

Get Mail!

* indicates required

Intuit Mailchimp