I recently decided to create my own blog to continue to explore and play! If you would like to see more paintings and photographs, please visit me at marlenelowden.com.
I’ve always felt that yoga is a form of creative expression and recently I’ve found a clear connection between the practice and the process of abstract painting. I’m a student of the Anusara school of Yoga and I’ve loved painting for as long as I can 
remember so naturally I’m thrilled with this personal discovery. Anusara means, “flowing with Grace,” “flowing with Nature,” “following your heart.” Its founder, John Friend developed the “Universal Principles of Alignment™” to guide us during our asana practice. These principles not only help our bodies align but open our hearts to the divine around us and within. They guide me as I step onto my mat, and recently they have profoundly shaped my approach to a canvas.
The “Universal Principles of Alignment™” act as a series of expanding and contracting pulsations or waves. I’m enjoying a new freedom or expansion with my brush strokes and colours choices, knowing, just as I shift my focus in a yoga pose, that I will counter balance with contracting shapes or colours. This shift from expansion to contraction holds the space or freedom that I’ve created on the canvas and the cycle continues until I feel that the painting is complete. I know these principles well, as I practice them daily on my mat and using them gives me confidence as I’m painting. The cycle give me a reference point, so that when I study my work in progress, I know where I’m at, where I’d like to go and how to proceed. The alignment principles allow me to step out of my head, act from my heart and trust in the beauty of the journey.
I know that my yoga practice has a deep influence on my daily life, and now that I’ve made this new connection, I’m filled with even more gratitude and excitement! I decided to share this in hopes that it would inspire others by fueling the commitment we have to our yoga practice and perhaps opening a new path to enjoy other forms of creative expression.
I plan to continue to share more as I explore these connections deeper.
Namaste,
Marlene
For more information on the “Universal Principles of Alignment™” and Anusara, please visit their website.
More Connections
My recent insight into the connection between both of my favourite practices (yoga & painting), became all so evident the other day as I was working on these two paintings. I decided to challenge myself (much like learning a new pose) and chose to work with green. 
I love greens, I just don’t naturally gravitate towards them while I paint. The result was a seemingly endless; (hours which turned into days) process of expansion and contraction while I struggled to produce this autumn inspired painting. When I finally felt like I had touched it enough and was ready to take a break from painting for a while, I reached over and grabbed a canvas that I had previously primed with an almost solid dark (contracted) layer. In a flash of total expansion and momentum, I created this second painting. I am happy with both, regardless of the difference in amount of time put towards them. 
I look at them now and they remind me of how, some days, my yoga practice seems like a struggle, taking so much effort just to unroll my mat. Each breath seems endless, my body feels awkward and my mind won’t settle, until I’m well into my practice. I then have other days, where everything flows, each pose seems grace filled, effortless and sublime.
With much gratitude, I look forward to my next practice whether it be with my mat or my paint brush as both forms teach me so much about my most important practice – life!
Namaste,
Marlene
