Instructor: Sarah Pattison, BFA

Expressive painting is a healing modality that takes your emotional energy from the inside and allows it to take form outside. Paint facilitates this process. Being visual in nature, the paint and the act of painting triggers some visceral responses that can't occur otherwise. How does it get started? The painter takes the brush that catches the eye and dips it in the color and starts painting. No instruction, no how-to's. A simple delving into what feels right.

The big word in this process is PERMISSION. Permission to express oneself freely without censorship or interpretation. The emphasis is on the process - not the product. However, because of the visual nature of the medium, frequently the challenge is to let go of one's expectations of how it LOOKS and instead transfers this to how it FEELS and to continue to follow the thread of the emotional energy. Permission allows you to let go of issues of fear and judgment about who will see it and what they will think.

For reasons of privacy and to create a feeling of safety there are ground rules in a group painting session that ask participants not to comment on or about anyone else's painting. In-group discussion, participants are asked to keep the process with them. In other words, not to interpret or discuss anyone else's work. Also, it is emphasized that the painter have the freedom to show final paintings only to those who understand the nature of process or maybe no one at all if he so chooses.

The effect of this feeling of safety and being given freedom to paint anything can be exhilarating and sometimes frightening. The mind plays funny tricks. We think we want freedom but when we are given it we find new ways to confine ourselves. A new awareness of this mental activity is a frequent result of this kind of painting. It can also lead to tremendous breakthroughs in other ways. Sometimes by facing one's feelings one is able to re-experience them. Often these can be of strong emotional content...feelings we often want to compartmentalize in our daily lives in order to 'carry on'. But when we actually allow ourselves the time to feel them it frequently has an opposite effect than what people expect. It can be incredibly joyful. Even when the carefully contained feelings might be those less acceptable to express in polite society. If a theme arises that the painter has worked with before, it may diminish in importance. Releasing old energy can also awaken new insights and a deeper understanding of oneself may result. Then new energy can emerge, sometimes a new life direction or a larger sense of oneself. Sometimes a hidden artist rises to the surface.... In conclusion, expressive painting can be a very rich, active and co-creative way to bring new understanding to yourself and your life -IN COLOR!