The Industrious Shadow lands in Texas!

Hello,

I woke up to a wonderful email this morning from a thrilled buyer who recently purchased "The Industrious Shadow". I worry with internet sales that the buyer may be dissapointed when the painting arrives as it is never quite the same on a computer monitor as in reality...

... one can adjust colours, manipulate contrasts, and saturate the image... On the flip side, what you don't see on a computer is the true lustre and depth of the painting, and "The Industrious Shadow" is a painting with it's own energy... another thing that is lost on the computer screen.


I remember going for a few sessions of massage for my shoulder to an alternative healer and they were asking about my art and said perhaps I wasn't always being honest with what I was painting. I thought about this and the truth was, NO - I was NOT being honest in all my paintings, in particular, trying to please the buyer rather than myself.


The healer challenged me to be more honest suggesting that perhaps part of my shoulder problem could be put down to the subconscious inner turmoil of this 'dishonesty'... and perhaps not all my paintings need to be 'pretty or fun'.


The next day I started painting what was intended to be a fun, vibrant and quirky self portrait. No matter what I did I was unhappy. Finally I decided on impulse to take up a different palette and covered all my hard work up with blue, black and white paint. A few days later "The Industrious Shadow" emerged.



I have always been particularly fond of this painting. It taught me a lesson: Besides being truthful in everything I do, it is important most of all to be truthful to myself, and this means accepting all parts of myself, the light and the dark. My ever industrious shadow is what drives my ego and criticizes me and tells me that I am not good enough, or that what lies before me on the easel is rubbish. He laughs at my mistakes and plays tricks with my mind. When I solely believed these mind games, life was difficult, but now that I know it's just my shadow tricking, ever industrious trying to push me on in the only way it knows how, I know it's a conversation I can enter into, or simply ask my 'visitor' to come back later.




I will never forget that night when I sat there on the patio while my painting spoke to me. I remember laughing with the realisation that I had a new friend -"My Industrious Shadow."