Creating ‘Oceans Within’ ~ An intuitively created painting by Tanya Cole

‘Ocean Within’ Original Acrylic on Canvas 36″ x 36″ © 2016 Tanya Cole

This painting was a joy to create! It started off in a fun way, collaborating with my 6 and 8 year old boys!

They love to start a canvas off with me, making marks with oil pastels.

Shapes, lines, texture, colour and movement. All laid down with love and joy.

The boys lost interest pretty quickly, leaving me to move forward with expressing my soul, covering over the white canvas with more symbolic mark making and meaning.

Bringing in colour whilst generally lost in the flow of creating.

Accentuating shapes and patterns.

And then bringing in a face, as an image appears in all the mark making and paint.

Refining features and deepening paint layers.

Tweaking and ‘playing’ with paint until I feel like the piece is finished!

This girl brought me so much joy as I painted her. The morning after I had finished her…I couldn’t wait to rush back into my studio to clap eyes on her once again!

That’s the power of intuitive & expressive painting. You never really know what you are going to get so it’s always a delightful surprise!

This lady has something about her and she makes me (and others) feel.

That’s pretty priceless in my book!

And there you have it…one of my most favourite ways to paint.

Would love to hear your feelings and thoughts on ‘Oceans Within’ and whether she speaks to you also? Let me know in the comments! 🙂 x