One of the things I love about the intuitive painting process is how much it encourages me to go under the surface of things. To explore what I can’t always see. To dive into my inner world and try and express visually what is not readily visible.

This can sometimes look like feelings or moods, but when I first started painting intuitively I was fascinated by processes and structures inside of my own body. Veins and blood, bones and my internal organs kept showing up again and again. And I never TRIED to paint them realistically. I was more interested with painting how I imagined them to be or how I experienced them energetically.

This little pencil drawing that I did this morning felt like that kind of inside-my-body exploration. I’ve been having some sciatic pain in one of my legs related to ongoing problems with my lower back. And this sketch makes me think of nerve pathways and cells and the root-like quality of dendrites.

Now the thing that always fascinates me about this process is that when I sat down to do this I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t say to myself  “I’m in pain so I’m going to draw about that.”

While I was drawing I wasn’t particularity thinking about my back issues. I just drew and painted. And to tell you the truth I’m not sure that this is even about my back. But once it’s out there on the paper it’s hard to not make that association. It’s like my intuition is constantly communicating with me and my job is to just allow it to have its say.