I have been drawing since I was a little kid, so it was natural for me to fall into painting, which is really only drawing with paint. In the beginning, I think all painters copy photographs, learning form and color, study other artist's work to gain an understanding of technique, and then seek out the artists themselves to learn a bit more. There are many different styles of painting, and I set out to explore some of them. I came to appreciate various techniques and approaches; I found that some styles fit very well with certain imagery and emotions, and it was nice to have an array of ways to celebrate life with paint. For many years I painted portraits and landscapes, constructing images that were aesthetically pleasing, sold well, and were a lot of fun to create.

One day a Zen teacher said to me, "you should try mixing your paint, sit down in front of a blank canvas, no drawing – and just paint whatever comes to you." How scary that was! I sat for a couple hours, worried silly that I was going to ruin a perfectly good canvas. At some point, I picked up a brush, swabbed a bit of paint, and touched the canvas… and suddenly the day was over, and I had covered the canvas with the oddest images, somehow all connected and very personal to me. I experienced the strangest feeling of accomplishment, and I really didn't know where this had come from. Or who this had come from..

This Révélateur (French, “Revealer”) style of painting expression seeks to permit the artist to become a witness to the process, gently relegating the conscious mind 'into the back seat,' so the sub-conscious 'takes the wheel.' Relaxing the conscious mind and yielding to the sub-conscious mind takes practice - it is not easy to be allowing, since we tend to associate with our controlling conscious mind so much of our waking time. This is a fascinating approach, unpretentious, playful, and always surprising.

William Prosser’s work is represented by Meg Goodwin at The Ojai House, 304 N. Montgomery Street, Ojai, California.

www.williamprosser.com