creative freedom

Painting Myself Free

Painting Myself Free

We’re happy to offer the following guest post by Diana Pop, who recently attended a Painting Experience workshop at Esalen and shared this wonderful description of her time in the studio. For the longest time, […]

Creating Outside the Lines

Creating Outside the Lines

It's hard to believe, but I've been posting to Facebook for The Painting Experience for almost eleven years. We have a large number of Facebook followers -- about 64,000 -- but because of the way […]

Connecting With Your Own Energy

Jean Matlack working on a process painting

After creating a safe and spacious environment, working with energy is a facilitator’s primary tool. The energy determines how you move within that space -- for example, the questions you might ask and the suggestions […]

Safe Place, Sacred Space

Safe Place, Sacred Space

“An artmaking space is a “mishkan” a portable sanctuary. Each artist working there is alone with her image and the message it brings as well as being in a subtle communion with others in the […]

Radical Innocence

Radical Innocence

The first encounter with painting is often a delight and a surprise. Each color is a delicious revelation; strangely satisfying forms appear; we’re amazed and fascinated by the mysterious images that emerge. And the room […]

Don’t Paint Whale — Paint Whaleness!

Don’t Paint Whale — Paint Whaleness!

Recently, Lisa Pedersen reminded us of this brief and very lively excerpt from a talk that Stewart gave at a workshop in Southern California. In the following conversation with a workshop participant, Stewart brings to life […]