Process Notes: Catherine’s Calm (Vermillion), 2022

Catherine approached me about creating a painting for her office that would visualize a meditation practice that she works with to reduce anxiety.

I encouraged her to mock up the size of the painting on the wall so we could get an exact size.

Regarding direction for the painting, Catherine wrote:

I was inspired by your painting "Threshold of my radiance". I love pieces involving water. I use water/lakes/waves/ripples frequently for visualization and meditation practices. I also liked that Threshold of my Radiance painting because of the "window" look. I also use window visualizations when I'm applying mental tactics to reduce anxiety.

I asked her for some more insight into the meditation practice itself, and this is what she said:

When I'm visualizing the lake for my meditation/breathing practices, I picture one spot on the lake that I used to sit as a child. The place we stayed at was an old resort of little wooden cabins on an island in Lake Vermillion. I would sit out on the longest pier there (so that I could get far out into the water) at sunrise or sunset and watch the ripples of the water (sometimes made by loons or little bugs, or the wind). It was a very calm lake - some small fishing boats but no big watercraft. I would look across the water and see super thick forest -it was pretty untouched up there when I used to go. Tightly packed pine trees lining the water. Blue skies. When I'm visualizing, sometimes it's sunset and I imagine how warm it felt with the sun, and sometimes it's sunset and I imagine a more cooling sensation and dusk skies. The water was always very cold up there, no matter how hot it would get outside :) I always imagine the same rippling of the water, and the trees on the opposite side. But sometimes the sunrise/sunset time is different. Sometimes I imagine that loon call in the distance. It was a special place!

Catherine’s evocative description of this visualization, coupled with her reference of my prior painting, was all the input I needed. The painting took me a few months. Here are some process photos showing the progression.