Bill Buchman warming up with his Zen Brushes.

Even though I have not spent a lot of time in my studio these past few months, I’ve done a bit of art here and there and I attended a workshop with Bill Buchman. Some of you may remember I took a class with Bill last year with artist called Creative Breakout. I had such a good experience learning and also being inspired by Bill that I looked for another workshop with him at the Longboat Key Center for the Arts this winter. Yes! In February, Bill offered a two-day workshop called Zen and the Art of Painting and I signed up!

I filmed much of the 2-day Zen and the Art of Painting workshop with his blessings and am working on a series of videos; view the first one here. While filming one day during this workshop, my camera ran out of memory before Bill did his demo -argh! But I had taken photos of Bill painting an Ensō with the brushes he designed, so I put the slideshow video together with those photos & short film clips. Find it below.

Bill is using a Zen brush that he designed. In Zen Buddhist painting, ensō symbolizes a moment when the mind is free to simply let the body/spirit create. From Wikipedia: Ensō (円相) is a Japanese word meaning "circle" and a concept strongly associated with Zen.

We also used one of his bamboo reed Zen Pens. After Bill had demoed all of the students had a chance to create an Ensō Circle. Here's mine:

I tried to be very free and in the moment while I was painting. This is encouraged. When it was done, I saw a bird in my Ensō, do you? Below is another Ensō Bill that painted, one of his wonderful figure drawings and another photo of him really getting into his demo!

Check out his website to see more of his art.

In March, Bill was part of the Fine Arts Society of Sarasota, Florida’s Studio Tour. My friend Cheryl and I visited his wonderful studio that’s 1800 sq ft!

That's all for now, I hope you enjoy.

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

  ~ Vincent van Gogh