We see roses everywhere, and we give them as gifts, but what is their true significance? Once they have been placed in a vase, they are forgotten. If you look at a rose with an enlightened consciousness, however, it becomes more alive and enters into a relationship with you. You sense that a splendid being lives in this flower and that it speaks to you. Some will say: ‘But that is not possible, we read this kind of thing in fairy tales. We will never be able to hear a flower speak.’ There are different ways of hearing the voice of a flower! And if what I am telling you seems to have come from a fairy tale, know that these tales are not merely beautiful stories invented for children by people of great imagination. They correspond to a profound reality which you will finally grasp when you open yourself to exchanges with all of nature.
A friend of mine did an art course and at one stage had to learn to paint (watercolour) a rose. Not the easiest of flowers to paint! She couldn’t get it right, it just stayed a « dead » picture. I asked her: » do you understand the soul of your flower? » The soul??? Do flowers have souls? » Yes, of course they do, that is the essence of their being. You want to paint you must grasp that concept otherwise you just paint pretty chocolate box, soulless pictures. Have a look at, for instance, Vincent Van Gogh. He brought worn out shoes to life, or a bed, he made those boring objects exciting because he understood them.look at paintings of flowers through the centuries, why are they so moving, so touching, because the artists understood them.
You must have a special relationship with your surroundings to give real life to ordinary objects, to your interaction with nature. Once you grasp that, once it becomes part of you you are an artist, not merely a painter of pretty pictures. I wonder if art schools teach this?
Thank you dear Helene for sharing this beautiful thought