Sometimes when I paint something beautiful happens. Often it doesn’t. There are no guarantees for experiencing that elusive moment when something magical happens on the canvas. However undoubtedly certain states and conditions help, in particular a state I can best describe as being both full and empty. 

I like to keep the studio clean and without too many unnecessary things in the space, the items that make it in are carefully chosen. Earlier this year I enjoyed taking a few ceramics lessons here in Portugal, my first experience with the pottery wheel and glazing my own pieces. Two of the pieces have become part of the chosen few. A small cup and an incense holder.  (In truth I decided to make an incense holder after the top came off the ‘espresso cup’ I was making while I was shaping it on the pottery wheel, one of life’s wonderful mistakes that all turns out for the best because for a long time I have been giving up coffee but I have always loved incense). 

One of my favourite before painting rituals is to sit in the studio with a cup of cacao and dream a while with the scent of the incense. Cacao opens and grounds me and the incense transports. The mind chatter fades away for a while and fills instead with a sensory reimagining of the inspiration I have taken in during the hours and days before, of the feelings I am presently sitting with and of a heart connection to something bigger than myself. From that state I begin and discover if today will be the day that magic happens.