This post is mainly about my experience of the Bloom True on-line painting class I have been taking for the last 5 weeks led by Flora Bowley but before I start sharing my experience of the class I have a new treasure chest to share with you. I am still processing my holiday photos from the spring and this short video focuses on our visit to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Cambodia, Land of Temple, Road and Lake from Barbara Evans on Vimeo.

I'm not going to give a blow by blow account of my Bloom True journey just to say its been fabulous - the course has been holistic rather than only about painting and painting techniques and this has worked well, engaging your whole being, body, mind and spirit, in the process. Throughout the course I worked on two paintings and I am going to illustrate the story of one of them from start to finish. Flora's technique is based on adding many, many layers to each painting and practicing non- attachment and intuitive painting to further each canvas - much harder than it sounds!

My first painting started like this

Then progressed to this

Followed by this

Then this

and this

Still going!

nearly there now!

and finally!

I'm not of course absolutely guaranteeing that it is the final final version, so watch this space! What of the other painting I hear you ask - well having been through a tree phase its current iteration is an elephant which I am not loving, lets just say it has a way to go!

On day two of Call of the Wild Soul I took Flora Bowley's class. Having already bought her book ‘Brave Intuitive Painting’ I had some idea of what to expect. Flora did not disappoint!

There are very few pictures in this post as I did not take my camera to the class as I felt that paint covered hands and my DSLR didn’t mix too well. I took a couple of pictures with my phone at the end and really regret not taking more.

We started the class with a circle and I was reminded of the book ‘Calling the Circle’ by Christina Baldwin which I read a while back. Flora had made a centerpiece from beautiful things she had found in the garden. After spending time on introductions and intentions we did some gentle exercises and then danced around the room for a while to loosen up our bodies. Then the painting began! First we created shared Mandala’s before a demonstration of Flora’s painting techniques and beginning to make marks on our paper.

The pattern of the day was that we would work on two paintings then have a break while Flora demonstrated a new technique for us to practice. About half way through this process we were asked to swap one of our two paintings with our neighbour and continue to work on it as our own. This came as a bit of a shock to most of us! One of Flora’s key ideas is that we shouldn't get too attached to our work as this can stop us progressing it. “Paint over something you like with something you love”

After several layers she asked us to step back from our paintings and identify what we really liked e.g. shapes / colour combinations, with a view to doing more of those. We also looked for shapes we could turn into objects. I didn’t think I had any in my picture that could turn into anything so it was a real ‘lightbulb’ moment when I turned it upside down and found 3 people hiding in there! Similarly I found a cloaked figure in my other painting.

At the end of the class we held a closing circle thanks to Flora nad the ther calss members for making it such a fab day

Things I took away from the class were non-attachment, just going with the flow and the techniques Flora uses - I can’t wait to get rid of this cold ( streaming cold and painty hands not a good mix) and get painting!

Blooming True and Other Stories

Call of the Wild Soul - Take 2