ZEN BOOK OF HOURS PROJECT

SEE THE IMAGES FOR EACH MONTH ON ITS OWN PAGE, UNDER THIS HEADING

(This project has its own shop, where you can find prints and originals available for sale:  www.ZenBookofHours.etsy.com   and  www.SnakeBathDance.etsy.com … further images every week…) 

Zen Book of Hours Project

These little paintings are part of a larger project, extending through 2009. The series is inspired by an earlier work, Zen Pine Needles, in which I painted small watercolor portraits of individual pine needles. It was a Zen exercise to get me through some tough times, finding the deep love in those little things we overlook in our daily rushing lives.

Here we are in tough times again, and this path is a way through the maze.

For this project I’ve undertaken to make a new painting for each day, again a portrait of some little botanical detail that’s commonly overlooked. The palette will change with the seasons and at the end of 2009 I’ll publish a fat little book, each page containing one meditational image for the day. That will be the Zen Book of Hours.

This is a modern version of the Medieval Book of Hours, a tradition of handmade illuminated books containing prayers and illustrations for each day, or seven times a day (the Hours), in order that the owner could pray in concert with monasteries throughout Europe. 

In this case the calligraphy is Nature’s, without human words.

Even in deepest winter, the beginning of this year, I feel the images are dancing. They speak many emotions. They sing.

They give me a chance to fall in love for a couple of hours every day.

The resulting book will be a way in which owners, scattered through the world, can be mindful in concert with each other and these Garden Sprites in further years. The little paintings are themselves seeds.

This project is financed through the sale of prints, shop link above, and best viewed in groups of one to four. You can look up special dates – birthdays, anniversaries – on the pages on this site. Or you can collect an image for each season!

I’m taking Reservation orders for the originals, for delivery after the shows in early 2010. Each canvas is made with a museum-finish and may be hung without frames. If you prefer, custom frames are available in deep brown or white, hand-finished by the artist.

You can find more info on my website (www.moirabrown.com ) if you’d like to see background and further work… and scroll down here to see the images as the project continues, other months on their own pages for faster loading.

Many thanks for looking.