Mary Benz Gilkerson's 5-Day Challenge has already changed my world
Drawing is a meditation, so this daily practice is getting me back to the Zen that comes from pencil painting. When I draw it loosens pent up words that come spilling out of the cage of my busyness.
Here's the revelry this drawing session rewound.
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This pencil painting was inspired by Beatrix Potter, the first woman to break a stereotype by becoming a "working woman" despite her social breeding in higher society.
As Beatrix unnervingly followed her passions and splayed her pages with the critters she loved, her books sold. She became very wealthy... in an era when women artists weren't even recognized for their contribution.
My pilgrimage to Beatrix Potter's Lake District was a pivotal inner journey. You see Beatrix used her art wealth to preserve and protect the bucolic countryside that inspired her art. To rescue this lovely Lake District, Beatrix bought up bucolic landscape dotted with glimmering lakes, thus saving it from greedy developers.
[Here I am in the Lake District]
This woman who defied the odds has always inspired me so I made it my mission to visit her country home and experience what inspired her.
This quiet, artistic spirit followed her dream and changed her world.
Today, her art is changing my world.
CLICK HERE to join Mary in a webinar that reveals more about the benefits of a daily art practice.
Beatrix inspired me as a child when I grew up in the African jungles. I remember curling up on a divan next to my mom in our dimly lit mud hut, reading by kerosene lantern. Mama was an actress, so she infused a lot of energy into the antics of Peter Rabbit as he wreaked havoc in Mr. McGregor's garden.
Beatrix's courage defied the dictates of her culture, and today she inspires me to live my personal dream, to change my part of the world ... with my art.
But I digress... this pencil painting came to me on a train ride from the Lake District to London.
I had just seen the only Potter originals in the world, meandered through her rolling meadows in the Lake District and wandered through Mr. McGregor's garden where Peter Rabbit had been up to his shenanigans.
[Here I am in Mr. McGregor's garden]
After two magical days immersed in Beatrix's world, I boarded a train to London and my mind was whirling with the inspiration of a woman who carved a path I'd like to tread.
I was lost in one of her books when my revelry was interrupted with a heart wrenching cry of a frightened animal. I wandered down the isle to investigate and see if I could help, and there he was.
A terrified little puppy was quivering from his head to his toes, with a gut wrenching, pitiful whimper. The British woman who had wrapped him in a soft blue terry cloth towel, looked up at me apologetically and explained.
"He's just left his mum and brothers at an English farm and I'm taking him home to meet his new best friend. He'll be okay in 7 minutes because my little girl will greet us and he will fall in love."
Reassured, I climbed back into the story that inspired me and made a decision to put this on paper. Even though I didn't witness it, I imagine this is what it would have looked like when two best friends met for the first time.
I'm calling this "Puppy Love"
Thanks Mary, for giving me permission today to leave my hectic world and crawl inside my serenity zone. For a few minutes, I got permission to jump back into my zen. Art stirs so much on the inside and it sort of hands a microphone to my muse. (And she loves to talk. :) )
More pencil painting to come thanks to Mary, a modern day Beatrix Potter who is living her artistic truth and inviting us to join her on that creative journey within. Thanks Mary Bentz Gilkerson. You inspire me.
CLICK HERE to join Mary in a webinar that reveals more about the benefits of a daily art practice.
