Exploring Awe in Life and Art

1000 year-old tree on Meares Island

I have had many experiences of awe in my life: the birth of my third grandchild last summer was a highlight. I actually experience awe each time I see him. But other than that miraculous experience, I felt awe when I taught a Workshops in Wild Places workshop recently in Tofino, BC. Our group went one day into Tofino where we caught a boat to Meares Island, just off the coast. We wound our way past tree-covered islands until we came to the Meares Island dock. The island supports an old growth forest and is designated as a Tribal Park, an indigenous-led protected area. Led by our guide, we walked in single-file, slowly and reverentially on the roughly hewn boardwalk that winds through the forest. At the end of the walk, stands a magnificent, gigantic 1000 year-old yellow cedar. We let out a collective gasp when we saw it. We felt humbled in the presence of such a being.

I felt awe as well, in my Newfoundland workshop that took place last June at The Doctor's House. We were on the search for icebergs and drove way up the peninsula, past Heart's Delight, Heart's Desire and Heart's Content to Brownsdale, where we hit the jackpot! 12 icebergs floating in the bay! Completely awe-inspiring.

Iceberg floating in Trinity Bay taken with my telephoto lens. It was a big iceberg and quite a ways off.

What exactly is awe? Albert Einstein referred to awe as “The source of all true art and science”. Einstein went on to say, “He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.”

An excellent article in Psychology Today, discusses 10 benefits of awe. Turns out that awe is good for us in so many ways! Neil Farber in the Psycholgy Today article, sums up by saying, "Awe invokes creative, curious, mindful, altruistic, flexible, open-minded, physical, psychological and spiritual health and happiness." Sounds like we could use a spoonful of awe every day!

Awe experiences are what psychologists call self-transcendent: they shift our attention away from ourselves, make us feel like we are part of something greater than ourselves, change our perception of time, and even make us more generous toward others.

Morning sun on Cox Bay beach, BC

On the road back to Nanaimo from Tofino, BC

Another website, Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley, suggests another 8 benefits of awe. They also suggest 4 awe-inspiring practices, including an awe narrative, where you're asked to recall and describe a time when you experienced awe and to write about the experience in great detail. Such an exercise can help to relive that moment and so to re-experience awe.

Basalt columns on the water side of the cape at Baer Art Center in Iceland

Basalt columns running the whole height of the cape at the Baer Art Center, Iceland

Other practices come close to the benefits of awe: forest bathing is one, where a person walks through a forest for several hours in a slow, mindful, meditative way sometimes with forest bathing guide or even alone. The effects of awe are also similar to mindfulness, prayer, and meditation. But not quite. There is something about the experience of awe and vastness that makes a soul sing.

Workshops in Wild Places travels to awe-inspiring places. Not only will you connect with the land and create abstract paintings from that experience, but you'll also have all of the benefits of experiencing awe. We will seek awe.

Stars by Sara Teasdale

Alone in the night

On a dark hill

With pines around me

Spicy and still,

And a heaven full of stars

Over my head

White and topaz

And misty red;

Myriads with beating

Hearts of fire

The aeons

Cannot vex or tire;

Up the dome of heaven

Like a great hill

I watch them marching

Stately and still.

And I know that I

Am honored to be

Witness

Of so much majesty.

Meet the Owners of a Scottish Castle

Anne Tristine Nguyen, Ali Orr Ewing, their children, Ava, Atticus and their dog, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Dunskey Estate, Portpatrick, Scotland Anne Tristine Nguyen and her husband, Alistair Orr Ewing are the owners of Dunskey Estate near Portpatrick, Scotland where I will teach a painting workshop in September. Dunskey is a splendid Edwardian castle on 2000 acres of ocean-front land with miles of walking trails. As well as daily workshop sessions in the studio on the top floor of the castle, our small group of artists will enjoy breathtaking hikes, superb accommodation and fabulous meals. Not having met owners of a castle before, I asked Anne if I could interview her to hear a little of their background story and that of the castle. Can you tell me a little of your personal story and that of your husband, Alistair Orr Ewing? Anne emigrated to America when she was ten years old, but it was at an art gallery in Saigon, her birthplace, where she met Al

The Importance of Silence in Art

Gathering Light 60x60" Oil on canvas © 2014 Janice Mason Steeves Michael David Rosenberg, the musician known as Passenger, sings, "See all I need is a whisper in a world that only shouts." In the workshops I teach, I find that one of the most common problems with paintings is that they shout. Most have too much going on: too many small shapes, too much texture, extremes of colour, too many lines, too much, too much. One thing I say most often as I walk around the classroom working with students individually, is 'make bigger shapes'. But not only bigger shapes. Quiet shapes. Where can your eye go and rest in the painting? That isn't a consideration in much of contemporary painting or much of contemporary life. Ours is a noisy world both visually and auditorily. Ours is a world that shouts. People are afraid of silence. I wrote a blog post 3 years ago about planning a retreat in my own home, where I shut off the computer and the phon

Lessons that Stone Walls Teach

Dry stone wall in the Burren, Co. Clare, Ireland I've just returned from teaching a Workshop in Wild Places class in the Burren in County Clare, Ireland. Writing this post, I'm reminded of another post I wrote after visiting Inishmaan, the middle of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland several years ago. Stone walls crisscrossed the island in tight webs like a fisherman's net. I wrote then that the web of stone walls made me think of the idea of putting limitations on our painting as a way of exploring more deeply and how walls give limits against the limitless. You can read that article here. As our group hiked in the Burren with our guide, Marie McGauran we learned that the walls are stronger because of the holes in them. The wind can pass through. The oldest stone walls, estimated to be 3500 years old are at Skara Brae, a Neolithic site in Orkney. Most walls were built in the 18th and 19th century, marking areas of private ownership and resulting in poverty

Janice Mason Steeves

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