Wild Heart Expressive Arts Intuitive painting is a practice of surrendering TO your intuition and allowing it to lead the way.

But this approach often gets confused with painting from an agenda which means you are USING your intuition to get a desired result. And your intuition takes a back seat to your wish to have your painting turn out in a particular way.

For example, because intuitive painting is not results based it’s also kind of anti-technique. Techniques are developed as a type of shorthand that enable you to get the look and feel that you want to see in your completed work. And if you are always relying on that shorthand by using particular techniques, you are often not allowing the weird wackiness of your intuition to come through.

I remember in the one ( and only) art class I ever took where the teacher taught us how to paint a face. The instructions were very specific and as a result everyone in the class ended up with a face in their painting that looked like every OTHER persons face in the class. The finished products were quite pretty but not especially unique.

This is a very common way to teach art. And it’s great if you want to learn a specific type of technique to add to your painters toolbox. But if someone is teaching you a technique of ANY kind that is not intuitive painting. A technique is always based on a particular person’s style and THEIR shorthand. And the ways that they have learned to solve creative problems or express themselves in their own authentic way.

When you are truly painting from your intuition you allow YOUR creative genius to run the show.

Someone else’s style can utterly and totally inspire you. Surrounding yourself with the beauty that others have brought into the world can feed your soul in the most delicious ways. But if you COPY their style it doesn’t allow you to discover your OWN unique approach to painting and expressing YOUR self.

And discovering and expressing your uniqueness is the whole goal of the Wild Heart Expressive Arts Intuitive Painting approach.

Intuitive painting is also not concerned primarily with aesthetics, making something look good or communicating a coherent idea or concept to an audience.

When your goals include making sure something ends up being beautiful or even meaningful then left brain planning always plays a role in your creative process.

In the Wild Heart Expressive Arts Intuitive painting process there is absolutely NO planning involved. Nada. Zilch. Zip.

If your focus is on achieving a certain pre-ordained look or feeling in your artwork you’re not really trusting in your intuition. It’s wonderful to paint with a destination in mind. But WHEA intuitive painting is only concerned with the journey itself.

Now I’m not saying that you can’t use your intuition at the same time as you are painting from a specific intention. You can call on your intuition to help you get to where you want to go with any piece of art. You can tap into your intuition as you make something beautiful or meaningful or something that sells. And that’s good and holy work.

What I am saying here is that painting USING your intuition as a tool is not the same thing as giving your intuition total free rein and allowing it to lead the way. No matter WHERE it takes you.

And the process of intuitive painting for its own sake is really the primary practice from which everything else in your artists life flows. Without gaining a solid grounding in your intuitive, creative self it’s way too easy to get swept up in the need to produce, to be understood, to be liked or successful and lose that connection to your own essential creative voice.

And if you want to experience the healing power of trusting in your intuition, the unfettered joy of deep creative play and the spiritual transformation that comes from making soul art in this incredibly unique way, come and join me for my Painting With Fire class that begins in a couple of weeks.