Green Balm

We arrived by boat, at night, under a waxing moon. The boat sliced through the ink blank silence and deposited us on an island. The darkness was complete and enveloping. The brightest light was the moon above. I was home.

I could feel tension leaving my muscles as my limbs softened in recognition of the tree limbs. The wilderness reached its arms up to meet my soul which in turn seemed to leap up in recognition.

 

 I could sense a primal returning to a nourishing source. I was thirsty for this green world and for the first few moments all I could do was drink and drink, parched for green.

 For the next few days I felt like I was expanding. My whole body and soul kept spreading out over the lakes and sky. There was room for my thoughts to stretch and flow into the landscape. This is when I wonder where the soul resides, is it really contained within our small physical bodies or is it something larger? Something that surrounds us all the time? Does it contract in small man made environments and expand when we return to the silence and rhythms of the natural world?

This is the source of my paintings, I become the landscape and the sounds and textures become my paintings. The landscape quietly reveal itself to me through the paint. I feel so wholesome and alive when this connection is activated by the painting process. My senses become heightened and the whole world feels like a sublime expression of the divine mystery.