What is Art? 281.Art is Therapeutic and Healing

Many years ago I had viral pneumonia really badly and before I went into hospital I was too weak even to read or listen to the radio – I was just hanging on by a thread. But I was able to gaze at the big Monet print by the bed and let it carry me. It had an extraordinary aura – almost palpably I could feel a peace and strength that seemed to emanate from it. I was running a high temperature too and the colours – pale turquoise shades and aqua blues and greens – also made me feel cooler.

When our friend went into hospital last week we in the valley here all felt discombobulated. Anxious, out of sorts. Irritable. It was as though the peace of this wonderful place had become disoriented and taken us with it.

I decided to take the energy of the unsettling feelings and sorrow and use it positively in a new big painting. I used the same palette as another of Monet’s paintings, a sunset with many shades or rose. Painting the new canvas was extraordinarily therapeutic. My spirits lifted and even, as I neared completion, soared. So it was healing in the making of it, but also – and while I want to say magically I realise there is probably a scientific explanation perhaps in the vibration of both my energy and the paint’s – it is as though the painting itself is suffused with calm and a healing energy that will come across to anyone who likes the painting and could do with its help.

Art is often miraculous and this is one of the ways.

So as I write I’m giving thanks for both the Monet print, which I still have and cherish, and for my new painting. Respectively old by a great master and new by a relative ingénue – they both have the miracle effect.

With love and light, Jenny