The Process of Painting Poetry
From the Painting from the Soul Series; Inspiration Methods:
The Process of Painting Poetry, Ten Step Guide.
Here we go through the steps of creating visual art from words in a poem.
I assume that you can draw and have an understanding of art-basics such as color, perspective, light and composition.
1. Choose a poem that inspires you or one that you have written.
2. Memorize the lines.
3. Feel the essence of the poem
4. Enter into a meditative state in order for visual imagery of the poem to emerge.
5. Upon emerging from the meditative state, quickly sketch some of the images you have seen as best you can.
6. Arrange the elements in your sketches into a larger composition that reflects the mood of the poem, ie; harmonious, erratic, glorious.
7. Find the correct-shaped canvas to match your composition, ie square, rectangular, portrait or landscape.
8. Read the poem again and make notes of any new ideas that build on and enhance your original ideas.
9. Sketch very lightly with your brush, the composition you have created on paper, on to your canvas. (I like to use rose-red) and select a suitable color palette that resonates with the mood of the poem.
10. Enjoy the process leaving space open for any additional ideas that come through re, colors, composition or new elements that come to mind and very importantly; leave yourself open for creative spirit to come through as you paint.
Here Follows my process-example from a poem I wrote recently.
Tending Life's Vibrational Garden...
Though I plough through
Rich emotional aether
Striking gold
In summer’s-end blooms
I see once-vibrant elements
Die back before I fall
Though I accept
The darkness
And unforgiving
Sleet of winter
Wrapped about my soul
I know
Its role;
To highlight the measure
Of how bright green
My thumb of life can be;
I laughingly summon
Quintessence
From
Cracked, parched riverbeds
At my whim
I remain ever vigilant
In my vibrational garden
As the stamens of high-resonance
Inevitably conjure
The honey
In advance of the Bee.
Sketches;
So in my meditation I started seeing a woman emotionally connected to a landscape. Then as per:
"Though I plough through
Rich emotional aether
Striking gold
In summer’s-end blooms
I see once-vibrant elements
Die back before I fall"
This is where I saw the seasons emerge and thought about introducing all four seasons into the painting. I saw hanging moss becoming icicles and fall leaves dying back after summer.
The changing seasons idea then informed me of the shape of my canvas which would now be a long thin rectangle and also allowed for the symbol of infinity to determine a balanced composition and the underlying symbolism of creativity being infinite. I also went into the essence of the poem to begin deciding my palette.
I then began to transfer my drawings on to the canvas:
"Though I accept
The darkness
And unforgiving
Sleet of winter
Wrapped about my soul
I know
Its role;"
I used this part of the poem to create the depth in the painting in the form of a far off storm on the distant horizon. This is where the magic began to happen because I had no place for my woman figure and the foreground opened up an unintentional perfect place for her.
Even upon beginning to paint all my decisions were not set in stone. I like to keep a place open for the painting to evolve beyond my control, a place where reality slips into the realm of connection-to-source from whence flows a natural guidance that works in sync with creativity. I always make sure I am open to entering into this mode of creation. When it happens it does feel glorious and you can recognize it by the fact that you start losing all sense of time. Next verse:
"To highlight the measure
Of how bright green
My thumb of life can be;
I laughingly summon
Quintessence
From
Cracked, parched riverbeds
At my whim"
I chose to represent "My bright green Thumb of Life" as an emerald shell that incorporated the sacred geometry of Fibonacci sequence. I steer away from being too literal at times and also am wary of current icons like emojis that a literal green thumb would evoke. I also now had some openings to introduce cracked parched soil beneath the shell, and abundance in the form of an emerging cornucopia that organically presented itself at the tail-end of the symbol of infinity.
Last verse:
"I remain ever vigilant
In my vibrational garden
As the stamens of high-resonance
Inevitably conjure
The honey
In advance of the Bee."
This is a painting in progress and is not yet complete, when I do the video for this blog I will have finished the painting and you can see it. My youtube channel is here.
So here is how far into this painting I am, I expect much to change but the general overall picture is here.
About Jane;
Jane Evershed was born in the UK, grew up in South Africa and came to live in the US in Minneapolis, MN in 1984. In that same year she won the Minneapolis Metro Transit bus design award after which she launched a career marketing journals, books, large prints and notecards of her art which she marketed across the US and in many other countries for 25 years.
During this time she spoke at many universities and colleges, sharing her art and poetry, winning awards and various commissions. In 1994 Harper Collins published a book of her art and Poetry. In 2000 Jane transformed her home into a gallery and fundraising venue in Kenwood Minneapolis MN. USA.
In 2006, after her children had left home, Jane went to live in the woods of Wisconsin for 7 years where she continued to paint and evolve her style without the constraints of everyday life.
Upon her return to Minnesota in 2013 Jane began her Remembering the Divine Feminine series as a natural evolution from her earlier Power of Woman and other series that spoke to environmental degradation and the parallels of women’s rights (or lack thereof) worldwide. She also began teaching children’s art classes at Joan of Art Studio in Minneapolis.
In 2018 Evershed spent 3 months designing and painting the mural designs for Ubuntu headquarters in Mpumalanga South Africa for Michael Tellinger at Stone Circle Lodge.
Jane’s work is ultimately inspired by nature and our relationship to it. She observes the genius of the natural world and allows it to determine lines of life on the canvas that often evolve into otherworldly dimensions and states of consciousness not yet arrived at by our slow evolution. Examples of these would be LEAVING TIME, STEPS TO HIGHER DIMENSIONS and CHANTING DESTINY, to name a few of her latest works.
https://newearth.media/
Jane Evershed: Statement:
“My artistic endeavor throws abstract art into the dustbin of pedagogic art history. Art is meant to reveal the higher self of humanity striving for the zenith of the aesthetic. What happened to that high notion? Did art become reduced to a means of laundering money in a world where the elite control the art market perhaps? Did art fall martyr to the digital gods? Oil painting, like stained glass windows should be a part of life, like growing a garden. These skills must not be lost to humankind. Our schools are remiss in teaching art in many ways for many reasons, I hope to help fill this void by sharing the basics of art in a simple way with children, teachers and heal those whose creativity has been frozen.”
In 2019 Jane Evershed was invited by Dr. Nancy Ash, Chancellor, to be part of the New Earth University, Living Arts faculty.
New Earth University website: https://newearth.media/
Jane Evershed Art website; www.janeevershedart.com