#25 – Guérison
November 2015
Acrylic on canvas (1m x 1m)

“Guérison” means “Healing” in French.

This is the first painting on which I’ve probably had the most spontaneous releases of repressed emotions. From deep doubt and anger all the way to pure joy and carefree happiness.

Doubt and fear

On the first layer I used strong liquid black paint marks and dark reds which are still partly visible in the top layers through the transparency of the greens and yellows of the next layers. Quite a chaotic first layer, full of doubt and fear.

The written word

For the first time, the written word made its appearance all the way to the final layer of my painting. I started to doodle with my left hand with a turquoise acrylic marker until some words started to materialise.

I wrote mostly with my left hand, from right to left, the words coming out spontaneously. At first, upset and angry words and then, as I let go even more, these evolved into forgiving and healing words. I released pain and anger held up inside of me through the words that appeared on the canvas. A powerful emotional experience.

Releasing the beast!

That experience gave me a very strong will to release even more whatever wanted to come up and so, for the first time, I started to throw various shades of red paint with vigorous energy on my canvas. The walls of my atelier still remember this! A satisfactory, joyful feeling of just letting go!

To keep the fluidity of the paint and the impact of this splattering technique in swift motions on the canvas, I lay the canvas on the floor to let it dry.

#25 – Guérison – Detail

Finger painting

The technique and colours that I used for the next layer reminisce of my painting #3 – Le Cheval Chagall with its shades of blue, green, red and orange liquid paint applied with the fingers. But the effects are very different here. The orange and red have a liquid, molten lava feel to them, purifying the doubts and fears that I had sensed in the first layers and adding to the energy releases that I had felt in the second to last layer.

The final touch

Finally, I grabbed a beautiful silver shade of liquid paint and let it wander around on the painting, using a pen top to trace little round marks over the surface of the canvas and finishing up with my own fingerprints.

I love the energy of this painting and the healing power that it contains. The “paint throwing” technique that I discovered there is a favorite of mine which you will find in later paintings. It’s certainly been a revelation, a stepping stone in my creative journey and an important element in my own healing process: learning to let go, to stop controlling my moves, and allowing more room for intuition and spontaneity in my painting process.

A new home

Guérison found its new home early October 2017 alongside my other painting #22 – Die Wellenreiter. I’m absolutely delighted as their owners bought these paintings online without seeing the originals before, having faith in the high-definition photos that I sent them. I was so happy when E. sent me photos of both paintings in her beautiful living room and when she wrote that they loved my paintings even more “for real”. I did a little happy dance when I read this!

Guérison.

*** Original painting sold *** Available as limited edition print ***