The Essential Feature
The essential feature is purity of attention.
Such a moment will later be recalled
as having a quality of
conspicuous stillness, mental quietude, and vitality—
even if the moment carried difficult content.
The impression of time’s having “stopped”
is just an appearance.
It’s not that time was flowing and now has paused.
It never was in motion.
It’s just that at a moment of pure attention,
the profound stillness within is fleetingly realized.
The flood of peace and well-being comes
because the mind has grown quiet.
It’s stopped insisting that words and thoughts are reality.
The mind isn’t thinking about what’s happening.
It’s not narrating, labeling, anticipating what’s next.
It has dropped the pretense that anything but now is real.
Such is the power of attention.
—Jan Frazier, from The Freedom of Being: At Ease With What Is
5 x 7″; oil, latex, acrylic, and water soluble pastel on
extra fine titanium oil-primed linen on panel
seascape
2025
Let Yourself Fall is a second investigation of an idea on a second panel inherited from Lola, already covered with an abstract study painted by her in oil (see below). This time I went with a different color palette, no preliminary sketch, and painting more from within than from a reference.
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9 responses to “The Essential Feature”
Oh how wonderful is the power of in the moment attention!
Your second interpretation of one of Lola’s oils is full of energy and life. I can feel the sea spray. Bravo!
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PERFECT! thanks for returning my attention to how BIG a LITTLE painting can be. it’s crazy, isn’t it? i lose sight of that magic sometimes.
i have to say again that wonder mike REALLY had a paw on the pulse when he selected those little panels for me. they were JUST the right thing at the right time : )
Sheila, thanks for this feedback—it’s a gift to know that this painting has such sensory and dimensional impact.
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