Painting On The Road in Europe
Our recent teaching tour of Europe from early May through the middle of July gave me many opportunities to paint. Even success in selling some paintings accompanied our good fortune on the tour. We started out in London where I began painting Amma, the Divine Mother, which carried over to our visit to Szczecin, Poland, where I finished this piece.
In Poland we were staying with a wonderful couple, Krzysztof and Aga, for almost two weeks. So our stay was very productive and I painted two large works of Babaji as well during our stay. The Amma painting and the Babaji with green eyes were purchased by one of their friends who attended our Loving Relationships Training. The second green haired Babaji in meditation I gifted to Krzysztof and Aga for taking such good care of us.
Another thing I got really clear on during this European tour was the right “signature” for my paintings. I was always very fond of Albrecht Durer’s work, his draftsmanship, and also his monogram, AD, that he used to sign all his works. I thought “This is what I need”, a simple monogram that identifies my work, is not too obtrusive, and communicates, “This is a work by Markus Ray.” So this is what I came up with and I am happily using it to sign my works now.
After Poland we traveled to Portugal and Spain. In Spain I had time to paint three Babaji paintings, two of which sold, and one I gave to our organizer in the UK, Tajinder Chana. The Babaji with rays is very intense. It was bought by a lady dentist. She informed me that her husband had migraine headaches. I thought this was the perfect Babaji to “push out” any “head blocks” that were the cause.
Back in the UK we went to Glastonbury for the God Training. I shifted to a Jesus theme. It made me very glad to paint Jesus there, because Glastonbury is very famous for its Abbey, and for the ancient legends of King Arthur, and for the fact that Joseph of Arimithea, Jesus’s uncle, came here with the holy grail and started one of the first Early Christian churches.
Denmark, our next stop, was also productive. I did a small Jesus drawing and a larger canvas. Our hosts, Tove Jensen and Rolf Klaffert, were inspirational. They put us up in their house, took great care of our needs, and organized our workshops and our private Liberation Breathing sessions in Denmark.
Our last stop in Sweden was in Umea, a city in the north situated by the river that runs through it. I completed three paintings there. Two landscapes of the river scene, and a “Swedish Babaji” that incorporates the colors and elements of the Swedish flag, yellow and cerulean blue.
The landscapes were given to our hosts, Marianne Wikmann, and Gunilla Risberg, for organizing our stay. It was from Gunilla’s apartment that we had such a wonderful view of the river and a pedestrian bridge that crossed it to the main part of town.
As it stands, the 2 large Jesus paintings, and the small Jesus drawing are available for purchase, as well as the large Swedish Babaji. You can get an idea of scale on the larger paintings by the picture above of Sondra and the Glastonbury Jesus. All are unframed and can be shipped very easily to wherever you are in the world.
Thank you for following ART LOOK. You can also go to see more art at the ART LOOK STORE here: www.markusray.com
Warmly,
MARKUS RAY