What I'm about to tell you might sound a little odd, but here goes...each time I start a new painting session, I have a little ritual I follow to get out of my head and into the right place to paint.
I'll start with lighting a candle. One of my favourites is named "Balance", by a lovely woman-owned company called Snug Aromatics. The description says it is a combination of lavender, geranium and citrus oils - yum! Just the sound of the match on the striking paper, and that whoosh of the flame coming into being is just the quietness I need to hear. The smells slowly drift around my studio as the candle warms.
I also like to spritz my paintings with lavender oil mixed with water. The painting doesn't end up smelling like lavender, in the end, but I know it is there hiding out in one of the many layers of collage and paint that go into my artworks. I love the idea of a painting smelling good, rather than a bit dusty, like in a museum.
Sometimes I pull an oracle card, if I have a particular problem on my mind that needs a bit of sorting before I start painting. I don't want to take any heavy energy into the artwork.
After all of that, I am ready to paint. The next time I am called to my studio, I go through this again, and so the cycle continues.
