Painting from the Source: Awakening the Artist's Soul in Everyone (Paperback)

~ (Author), Elena Oumano (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Flamboyant, fearless, and freeing--just like Aviva herself." -- Henriette Anne Klauser, Ph.D., author of, Writing on Both Sides of the Brain (HarperCollins)

"Flamboyant, fearless, and freeingjust like Aviva herself." -- Henriette Anne Klauser, Ph.D., author of, Writing on Both Sides of the Brain (HarperCollins)

"If there is an artist buried in you who is struggling to get out, or a free spirit who needs to be set loose, this book will be like spending a week at a creativity spa. Read it, study it, live it, and you and your soul will emerge rejuvenated." -- Suzi Gablik, author of The Reenchantment of Art

"Painting from the Source is a wonderful invitation to free the artist within you. It offers excellent advice on how to get over your blocks and enter that dreamlike state of creative flow in which you can tap into an inner cosmos of imagery. Aviva Gold teaches painting as everyday shamanism; paint like a child, and you call back your lost children and your vital soul energy. I highly recommend this spirited, generous book." -- Robert Moss, author of Conscious Dreaming and Dreamgates

I love the emphasis on a truly accessible and intimate "source." Discoverhow art is made in partnership with the creative spiritit is not you alonewho paints the picture when you paint it. Aviva Gold significantly enlargesthe artistic and spiritual landscapes and eloquently affirms how all creation springs from the great mystery that gives shape to everything. -- Shaun McNiff, author of Art as Medicine, Earth Angels: Engaging the Sacredin Everyday Things, and Trust the Process: An Artistic Guide to Letting Go

Product Description

Imagine yourself painting with no hesitations, no conflicts. Your brush dips into pots of vibrantly colored paint; inner inspiration guides your hand into lines and shapes that find their perfect places on the paper . . .

Welcome! I'm Aviva Gold, your guide to the magic source. As children, all of us lived and painted intuitively. And as adults we can re-create the boundless joy of unselfconscious art by setting aside intellectual critique and self-doubt and reconnecting with the source. Remember standing at an easel as a child and painting in a trancelike state of wonder? Somewhere along the line this freedom gets trained out of us, and we are either categorized as artists or not.

Paint and remember! Return to the easel with the same childlike sense of play. My program is not about regimentation. Learn to let go of inhibitions, relinquish control, and embrace the source. Using simple materials--tempera paints, newsprint--paint without worrying about the end product.

Just let go, and begin! Every human being is an artist. In Bali, one word means both "human" and "artist." Just show up and face a blank piece of paper. Tap into the source. Revitalize! Transform! Now, imagine yourself painting . . .

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060952725
• ISBN-13: 978-0060952723
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #659,066 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A lot of good-will, but....., December 17, 2003

By	Salma (Surrey , United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This is a well-written book about painting with some good tips about experimenting and overcoming blocks...BUT,

The author takes 163 pages to write what she could have said in just 60 pages or less. There is a great deal of repetition and stretching of the same concept under different titles. The only redeeming point here being that the author is a good writer, so one does not emerge annoyed over reading the same things over and over again.

While the book is obviously written with sensitivity and good will, it does tend to oversimplify the process of overcoming blocks. Some examples are the tips given to inhibited participants, such as the suggestion to "make sounds" before the painting, bark, howl, scream, slither all over...such techniques are supposed to help exorcise the most insidious of demons and put everything back in place at the soul-front...

I think that the book exaggerates its claims by quite a stretch. The promise of a process of "inner liberation" in which all you have to do is find and press the right button belongs to fairy tales.

Besides, the premise (from the author's choice of examples) is that, if you dig deep enough in the image-well inside you, you'll find snakes, bugs, excrements, and the like, and that all those who were painting blue seas and flowers are putting on a mask etc..etc... The fact is, different people are going to find different images if they "dig inwards", some might actually long for colors like bright blues or even pink or WANT to paint rainbows without being told that that is proof they are still "resisting"...the impression suggested by the author's choice of stories is that, disturbing images are proof of having arrived at the right inner territory and anything placid looking is a cover-up...this is a very narrow perspective to a subject that, being that of awakening creative powers, should have been open-ended enough to allow for all possible discoveries at the end of the road...the experience of the brand of images the author and some of her workshop participants found cannot become the example of what qualifies as "touching the source"...

While I have no problem with images of tormented psyches, I just believe that different people have all sorts of ways of seeing and of expressing what they see, and that any book about painting should allow for that, and should not-while claiming it seeks to show the path to paint from within- decree that a certain line of images are proof of being there, while another as proof of being still way behind on the road to enlightenment...Once upon a time in the past, there were those ancient regimes of the "East block" in Europe, in which their painters were told to paint scenes and use only those colors that depicted "revolutionary optimism"...ironically, the "prescription to freedom" in this book brings that story to mind...The thing is, NO specific brand of images should be defined as sign of being on the path of inner-truth or that of self-deception, least of all, in the name of artistic freedom of expression!

Being "open" to what lies inside the source, means being also open that it may not always be gut-wrenching scenes,it means being open to surprise in ALL its colors...repeating over and over how certain types of images are signposts to the path to inner light can work like subliminal messages that make people move in the directions suggested to them, but, in this case, they won't necessarily be towards THEIR own source....

To be fair, there are some tips worth exploring and my advice is to pick and choose, and...well... if it would put you at ease to bark and roll in paint, well, why not? (But If THAT would do to exorcise your demons, I'd be most envious indeed....)

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars interesting, but not realistic for most people, June 13, 2001

By A Customer

I enjoyed the author's enthusiasm for the idea of painting from the source, which I understand to be a form of spontaneous painting without a preconcieved notion. However, it is difficult for the average person without an art studio to follow the instructions for the large scale work that the author intends is good for the soul. I am sure the author's workshops that are mentioned quite frequently throughout the book are stimulating and are wonderful environments in which to do this work. But I found myself wishing I purchased a book with more practical strategies for how one can engage in painting for one's soul.

Also, there are color prints in the center of this book; I frankly found them frightening and not particularly inspirational. Art is not only about the ugly and less aesthetic, it is about tapping the beauty of the soul as well and bringing that forth through paint or whatever medium one chooses.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this if you've ever picked up a paintbrush!, December 8, 1998

By A Customer

This book was so easy to read, and so very enlightening! It brings back the joy experienced as children, in "creating". Aviva Gold has tapped into the human psyche through limitless and delightful expression in "painting from the source".