Art meditation

Detailed instructions for an art meditation:

1. Mindfulness meditation (technique, style, shape, color, light, mastery)

2. Pleasurable meditation (deepened or extended meditation)

Art Meditation in German

1. Mindfulness meditation

Relaxing and meditating with art are fun!

Imagine entering a sacred room or temple. Let yourself now be led into the holy of holies of art in the same way:

  • Let go of everything and go mentally into the picture, so that you can look at it carefully and in detail!

Painting technique:

Farthest out is the stage of the art or painting technique. The image captions inform you about this.

  • If you know about the technique in detail, you can ponder how the painting technique was made to serve the spiritual values and the mastery of the picture.
  • How was the color applied (brushstroke, spatula, dots of color, pastel, liquid, glazing, covering)? Analyze the “handwriting” of the artist!

Style:

  • Visualize the design principles or the painting style! What is shown and how is it shown?
  • Is an object recognizable or is it an abstract image?
  • Is the object more naturalistic (realistic) or idealistic (divinely exalted), impressionistic or expressionistic?
  • Did the artist only work with style and technique or did he also add personality or feeling?
  • Does the narrative push itself to the fore or stay deep inside?

Form:

  • Which forms and lines can you discover or does formlessness predominate?
  • Is it more about structures, patterns, reliefs or figurative representations? How are the forms distributed?
  • What about the area distribution, the size ratio and the spatial perspective or the composition of the motif?
  • Are there individual accents, something noticeable or a strong emphasis in the picture? What about the beauty of the lines and shapes? Is it perhaps a rather imprecise, soft drawing?
  • Concentrate on a shape and follow its outline with your eyes! What energy does the form radiate?
  • How does the guidance of shapes and lines contribute to the dramaturgy of the image?
  • Can you spot levels in the picture? For example, foreground and background, or levels of content?
  • Differentiate between vertical, horizontal, hanging, inclined, round, oval, triangular, square, wavy and dotted shapes and assign a meaning to them.

Color:

In addition, there is the feeling of color, which depends on different color qualities and contributes to the expressiveness of an image – such as: glittering, radiant, silky, velvety, wooden, crystalline, metallic, watery, oily, flowing, dark, light, warm and cold. The color is the carrier of the mood that a picture exudes to a much greater extent than the form. The fine gradation of the colors and tones of a picture is one of the most distinguished tasks of painting.

  • Is it a primary color (red, yellow, blue), mixed colors (orange, green, violet), black or white or several bright colors?
  • What about cold or warm colors? Or dark, light or intense colors?
  • Is there an overall predominant tone in the picture that the other colors are matched to?
  • How do the colors ‚sound‘ together and how are they distributed over the picture surface? What is the relationship between them? Where can color effects be found?
  • What mood do the colors create? Cheerful, rather gloomy or exciting?
  • Can you discover color harmonies or color chords?
  • Perhaps you would like to assign a feeling or a statement to a color (see above).
  • How does color relate to painting technique and style?

Light:

  • What are the differences in brightness?
  • How is the light or light-and-dark distributed in the picture?
  • Do the picture or certain colors have a luminosity?
  • What kind of light is it: mirroring, reflection, colored light, diffuse or radiant light, shadow?

Mental form and spiritual mastery:

Furthest within inside the sanctuary you come across the spiritual form or the direct expression of the soul of the artist. It is the mysterious, the inexpressible, that which springs purely from the soul of the individual artist. However, a work of art can only reveal itself to you if your soul is in tune and opens up to mysterious revelations.

  • Now take on the task of the co-creator, whereby the work of art sinks into you in silence. Step out of your passivity and actively deal with the work of art.
  • There is no art without freedom: what elevates the picture above a simple illustration, what makes it art? What is the creative design?
  • What is special about it, that stands out above us, that belongs to another world?
  • Is there a special mood, a special harmony blowing towards you from the picture – something inexpressible, indefinable?
  • Is there any kind of reinforcement or exaggeration in the picture? Has something been very much simplified or abstracted?
  • What particularly appeals to you? Which individual stimuli and encrypted messages does the picture emit? What plays a major role: color, structure, shape, figure, content, imaginary scent, sound, personal or culinary taste, painting technique?

2. Pleasurable meditation

Works of art can not only be seen, but also explored emotionally. In the broadest sense, they emit a sound, a smell and even a taste (the latter in both a sensual and a culinary sense). Yes, they can dance in themselves or symbolize a movement. Now your imagination is in demand, nothing is forbidden, you are now completely free! You can‘t go wrong!

Sensual perception:

The picture is like a transmitter, your antenna is receptive through all five senses.

  • Concentrate on the colors and shapes and intuitively feel into the picture. You don‘t have to name or describe anything by name. It is perfectly sufficient if you feel something, even if it cannot be put into words.
  • If you want, you can answer the following questions. Give yourself enough time!
  • If you look at the picture for a longer period of time, can you discover something unexpected?
  • With which of the senses does the picture evoke associations? Which colors smell particularly strong?
  • What can you hear when you look at the picture? Sounds, tones, music, singing? Are they loud or quiet, delicate or rough?
  • You can also create a connection between the sound and the hues. Or is there any other sound signal?
  • Is there a taste in the broadest sense that you can associate with the picture?
  • What do you feel in a haptic sense – without touching the picture (soft, fluted, velvety, crusty, pasty)?
  • Where does light shine in the picture? Are there colors with a very special luminosity?
  • In what way is the picture moving? Are there dancing or perhaps rhythmic forms or does it radiate calm?

Identification with the work of art:

  • Internalize the work of art in its beauty and statement. Feel and enjoy the colors, shapes and the sensation!
  • Let the color as well as the sound, the smell, the taste and the light flow through your body!
  • The picture touches you, open your heart to it!

You are now filled with the aesthetic beauty of the work of art, it resonates like this sensation throughout your whole body. You are now color, shape, tone, fragrance, rhythm, taste and light. You are art and beauty, you are feeling!