Beauty Muse is an award winning book about awakening to Nature through our creativity. Easy-to-try painting activities, inspiring narrative and beautiful images invite the reader to develop a Creative Nature Connection practice to call their own.
Artist, writer and teacher Lisa Lipsett holds a Doctorate in Education from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education from the University of Toronto. She is developer of the Natural Painting Process and founder of the Creative by Nature Center- a workshop space and art showcase dedicated to the artful strengthening of human-Nature relationships. She lives on Salt Spring Island, BC .
Lisa’s Story
Natural Painting came to me one cool rainy afternoon in the spring of 1997, when out of sheer frustration with my earlier painting efforts I followed the impulse to paint the way tulips feel instead of the way they look. I wanted to connect with the life I could sense in those flowers. I simply set that intention, sat quietly, closed my eyes and using my hands, painted whatever came. The result was not what I expected yet I loved it instantly. The vibrant colours, unique shapes and resonant enchantment of the experience convinced me that something normally unseen was revealed.
Having been well schooled in the capture and dissection style of knowing Nature, I had never before thought to paint a resonant connection with another living being. Being blissfully nourished that day by both the process and the actual painting, I was inspired to explore further. I wondered what would happen if I simply began journaling how I feel and then painting with no plan.
Seeing Tulips Feeling Tulips
Over time, ways to soften the thinking planning mind bubbled up, while painting taught me to trust the hands instead. There was a melting down of the tension between what I was taught to think and do, and what felt natural in the moment. Paint gave colour and form to this communion. Natural patterns, a metamorphic cycle and my muse, a giant Cecropian silk moth appeared on the page and in my yard convincing me that we are Nature and that creating naturally nourishes intimacy with the living world.
By combining in-the-moment presence with Nature impersonating “techniques” we can begin to explore our natural creativity, animate the uniqueness of our inner landscape, and deepen a connection to Nature. When we impersonate Nature’s processes, we feel more natural ourselves and begin to understand how Nature works. The laws of self similarity tell us that we can open up to universal patterns that animate all Nature. So we do not use our will to create images rather we use our will to open to and enter a relationship with Nature through paint. We open to the essence of Nature.
