Meditations in Nature
(Prices on Application)
“My art is a form of meditation. It is almost always done outdoors in nature where I can focus my awareness on the experience of nature, the sights, the sounds, the feel, smell and even the taste. The final result is not the issue, what matters is the beauty, and joy it brings and how the process made me feel. Meditative art increases awareness and sensitivity and emphasises acceptance of feelings and thoughts without judgment.
As an artist I want to bear witness to nature, capturing her incredible beauty and power. I want to use art as a medium for tapping into the inherent beauty within us all.
The environment we rely on for our daily survival shapes how we view and interpret the world around us. The art we create from nature’s inspiration also becomes part of our personal and cultural identity. By conserving nature, we are helping nurture our artistic spirit ensuring that future generations will continue to find inspiration in the natural world.
Sadly the natural world is in great danger and I am drawn to painting the natural world before it is impacted and destroyed by climate change which is real it is happening now.
I like to explore and illuminate issues of social change and see the arts as a more socially engaged practice that shows how humans coexist and engage with the environment..
But trying to appeal to people’s social responsibility is hard. So perhaps through art there may be a more persuasive way of appealing to people.
What we have to aim for is leaving the planet in better shape than when we came here for the benefit of our children and grandchildren and future generations.”
– Ron Ragel
These works of art are done with the intention of being therapeutic for those viewing them.
Art has been described as a concrete representation of philosophical abstractions, and so it follows that the artist is, by nature and by definition, a philosopher. Artist-philosophers have always been with us in the world since millennia and actually all the great philosophers have been artists, and all the great artists have been philosophers, perhaps at best “unintentional” philosophers.
Zen Collection
(Prices on Application)
“Each painting is a gentle reminder that helps us to come back to ourselves and a reminder of the beauty in simplicity all around us.
When I paint, I just enjoy painting. When you look at a piece of art , just look and breathe and just enjoy the breath and the simplicity you are looking at.
In the Zen tradition art and meditation always go together. A work of art is conceived in the depths of your consciousness while you’re not thinking about it. The moment you draw or paint is the moment you give birth to it.
While doing my Zen art I practice mindful breathing while sitting in my zen garden with the water from the fountains creating a beautiful backdrop and my favourite music playing. While breathing in I’m concentrating on my in breath and when I’m breathing out I’m concentrating on the out breath. There is no tension at all when I paint so when you look at the paintings you hopefully not only see the painting you hear the sounds of the water and you hear the gentle music.”
– Ron Ragel
