"Spark in the Void" - this week's Intensive Workshop - Dominique Hurley

We’ve just completed a special 1-week intensive at the Vienna Academy of Visionary Art.

Actually, our teachers Kuba Ambrose and Vera Atlantia (Aichinger) are at school today, offering an extra day for those who wanted to complete their projects, so it’s not really done yet – a very generous offer!

Themes:

Each day had a special theme:

Monday: The Void
Tuesday: The Spark – light & dark
Wednesday: Colour
Thursday: Balance & Harmony
Friday: Integration

Kuba

Vera

The week was a perfect blend of the spiritual and artistic. Each day included: lectures and demonstrations; work on 2 projects, and; powerful meditations, creative visualizations, and chanting. My Spirit Calling Card Reading upon waking on Wednesday was so right – that morning’s guided journey into the mandala was such a blessing!.

Projects:

The first project was the creation of a collaborative mandala – following the guidelines set forth by Tibetan Buddhism, we spent hours meditatively and reverently painting this stunning piece. It will probably be finished today at school, so I’ll post another photo of it later. It is dedicated to Padmasambhava, known as the Second Buddha. Having journeyed into its multidimensional world to meet a guide and the guru through our daily meditations, painting this mandala turned out to be a very deep experience. We worked on it, usually 3-4 at a time, when we felt called to it or needed to take time off our other project. The balance between this highly structured project and our self-directed creations was great!

Photo by the Academy staff.
Our job in our second project was to create a painting on a small cradled panel using only black, white, and one colour. First, we came up with any image we felt moved to bring into being by using white chalk pencil on black paper. I started by copying a sea shell from a beautiful book called “Art Forms in Nature – The Prints of Ernst Haeckel”. From there, the figure and moon naturally evolved – there was not a lot of thinking for me here – I just drew quickly and intuitively. Second, we used an armature to improve on the composition – I got lots of coaching on correcting the arms, which were originally much too long. We then drew the image again on our pre-primed panels with white egg tempera, added a coloured glaze (I chose blue), and then painted with oils and a medium (1/2 linseed oil and 1/2 balsam turpentine). For this step, I got some coaching on blending oil paints – something I’m repeatedly told isn’t achievable with acrylics. It’s amazing how many times the woman’s profile (and therefore age and personality) changed as I painted her – not purposely, I assure you! I learned a lot through this whole process and for that, I am grateful. It’s not quite done – I will either glaze it again in a couple of weeks when dry, or varnish it in a few months. We’ll see. As I was painting, I was given the name “Rejuvenation” for it.

original drawing

egg tempera on panel

armature on panel

blue glaze

learning to blend oil paints

As it is now – Rejuvenation

Once again, I’m amazed at what my classmates created. What talent!

Rachel

by Martin Cash – www.facebook.com/mcasharts

www.hadleyseymore.com

Lizzy & Jayni painting

by Lizzy (Elizabeth Banker)

by Jayni Raven Morris who came from Saudi Arabia just for this workshop – www.facebook.com/jayniraven.morris

by Martin Cash

by Kevin Campeau – www.facebook.com/kcampeau

Every workshop that Vera and Kuba have taught has been both educational and inspirational. Seeing this couple work together is great! Kuba will be one of the main teachers for the Spring trimester, along with Daniel Mirante. I will miss a few weeks in April while I’m in Bali, but I’ll be participating in some classes and workshops when I come back in May and June. To find out more about The Vienna Academy of Visionary Art’s curriculum, click here.

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