This presentation grew out of an insight I had in my own studio practice—specifically, a connection between painting and mindfulness.

I share this with students during lectures in my painting and drawing classes. After introducing the core ideas, I invite students to try a short mindfulness practice focused on an object of their choosing. Afterward, I ask questions that help frame mindfulness not as a rigid state of concentration, but as a dynamic process of noticing, returning, and being present with experience as it unfolds.

My aim is to help students develop a deeper relationship to perception—through simple exercises that slow down the process of seeing and open up space for reflection. I’m trying to help them discover how attention works: how quickly it moves and jumps to conclusions, but also how it can settle, open, and return to the present.

Golding, J. (2000). Paths to the absolute.  

Mondrian, P. (2007). Plastic art and pure plastic art, 1937, and other essays, 1941-1943 (4th ed.). Wittenborn Art Books.

Ñāṇananda, B. K. (2017). Concept and reality in early buddhist thought. Philosophy East and West, 22(4), 481. https://doi.org/10.2307/1397890

Worringer, W. (1997). Abstraction and empathy: A contribution to the psychology of style. Ivan R. Dee.