Objectives: To experience a peaceful introduction to mindfulness, through a short meditation, followed by a yoga movement session, and then a 40-minute lesson on mandala painting on a canvas. The goal is to engage with your creative right brain, learning to let go and follow what you feel in the moment.
Materials Needed Per Person:
-A small size canvas
-3 primary colors of acrylic paint, black and white shades as well.
-A sheet of palette wax paper, as well as a flat surface to tape the paper on.
-their own towel or yoga mat to sit on
-One large, medium, and small brush
-Tissue paper and/or bags to take home art
Materials to be Shared in groups of 2-3:
-A cup with water for cleaning brushes
-Paper towels
-Various sizes of circle cutouts (pre-made at home with a compass) for tracing the circles or half circles of the mandala
Itinerary of Class:
9:30 AM- Meet promptly at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park
9:45 AM- After an intro of tips on meditating by Alina, start to breathe and relax for 5 mins.
10 AM: All move to a semi-private hill next to the fountain, set up mats or towels, and begin doing yoga movements guided by Alina for 20 minutes.
10:30 AM: Finish setting up and start art lesson, total is 35-40 minutes for a whole intro, steps, and clean up. People can stay to work on it longer if they wish.
Steps to be Guided for Art Lesson:
1. Brainstorm the colors you want as the background of your canvas, have this be very intuitive and abstract. There is no right way to do this.
2. Mix analogous colors to create the whole rainbow or just the colors that you wish. Avoid using straight-from-the-tube colors. Add white to make colors lighter (tints) if wished.
3. Add water to paint or use a wet brush on the canvas to create a light transparent wash on canvas, sort of like watercolor. If opaque colors are desired, do not mix water into the paint.
4. Let paint dry for 5 minutes, then use circle cutouts to trace either a full or half mandala onto the center of your canvas. Use several sizes of the circle cutouts so you can add more rings to your mandala. Start with the biggest circle first and then use smaller ones so you're able to see previous circles drawn.
5. After tracings, paint over all circles drawn with either black or white paint (this is your choice)
6. Use a combination of curved lines, straight lines, dots, dashes, and whatever else you can think of to fill in the rings and in between your mandala. Each one is going to be very unique so feel free to become really abstract in the way you do yours. We can all bounce off ideas with one another as well. During this process take your time and allow yourself to be conscious and present in the moment, it helps to focus on your breathing. You can listen to your own music, or try to do it without and become immersed in the surrounding environment.
7. Once you are done the painting will dry relatively quickly, be sure to paint your initials in the bottom right or left corner.
8. Take home your art in a bag provided by us, and maybe even come up with a title for your painting if desired. It can be anything you would like it to be.
Event date: June 25th, 9.30am-11.15am; cost $29, to Venmo to @Rosalie-angelillo; prepay is required by June 23d, in order to get enough supplies.
