The Journey of “Dying” and “Becoming” in a Process of Art
by Silke Chatfield
Art classes with Regine Kurek are always very inspiring.
We have worked on individual paintings up until the Easter break, working with only one or two colours at the time. Slowly the third colour was added, exploring the Goethean colour wheel exercises. After the Easter break, Regine had something very different in mind for us. Rather than working on individual pieces, we were led into working on one large piece over a period of 5 weeks. This exercise was based on the “Seven Life Processes”, which are Breathing, Pulsing, Relating, Identifying, Refining, Enlivening and Balancing / Beautifying / Harmonizing.
Painting with a “homeopathic” amount of colour pigment and using only one of the secondary colours and spreading it in only a few places. This was to allow the colour itself to be fixed onto paper, but without the restriction of confining it to a certain form or image. We then introduced the primary colour, using the same process. “Breathing” and “Pulsating” those two colours allowed them to come alive and we noticed a forming of a relationship between them. When we came back to the paintings, Regine encouraged us to find places where the colours themselves wanted to come out more. Adding more of the same colour to the already existing ones we could experience a gentle transition from “Being” and seeing “what is” to more defined forms, but still refraining from giving it an outer, defined form. Some colours became dominant, while others almost disappeared!
Our painting before it was to be divided and worked individually.
Gradually more colours were introduced and eventually the whole paper was filled. As we were working together on a very large piece, we then had to consider what the other students did on their sides. Meeting the other and mutually finding a harmony between the edges, an overlapping and giving and receiving of their colours occurred. We had to step back often and see the paper as a whole before coming back to work in a certain place. Others perceived differently from me and brought in their own seeing.
The last step in the process was to actively step back and take in the whole painting and let “it” speak to us. What wants to come out of the forms we created? Is there a motif somewhere?
“What wants to come out of the forms we created?” Clockwise from left: Daniil, Silke and Marc’s sections, June 2022
And then the big piece of paper was cut up into three smaller ones. Working on our own and having listened to what the others saw, we then painted definite motives. It was quite exciting to find the images in the painting itself and bringing it to a reality by defining.
Clockwise from left: Daniil (“Beings”), Silke (“Angels”) and Marc (“Critters and Sprouts”)
At the very end we brought our three pieces together again. Trying to find the “right” way to fit everything into a whole again, we created a beautiful Triptych. What started off with “not knowing” and went through the process of constantly looking for what the colours themselves want to reveal. It was a constant “dying and becoming”, forms we thought that were there disappeared and others arose out of themselves. It was certainly a new, wonderful experience.
Seeing the Triptych at the end we were invited to seek a name for this painting. Considering the different elements in the painting as a whole, words appeared. “Prayer”, “Creation” and “Heart”! We the named it “Prayer as the Heart of Creation”.
“Prayer as the Heart of Creation”, Group painting, June 2022
Our Author:
Silke Chatfield grew up in East Berlin and currently lives in Bristol, UK.She has worked in Camphill, in England as well as Germany. She is married and has seven children, who where all homeschooled. Silke has begun studies in the “Knowing Christ” program in the Seminary in Toronto.
This is a blog entry by The Seminary of the Christian Community in North America. These are posted weekly by the student editorial team of Marc Delannoy and Silke Chatfield. For more information about our seminary, see the website: www.christiancommunityseminary.ca and for even more weekly podcast and video content check out the Seminary’s Patreon page: www.patreon.com/ccseminary/posts.
