Georgiana Houghton: Spirit Drawings

[Sena]

Georgiana Houghton (1814-1884) was a Spiritualist medium who, in the 1860s and 70s, produced an astonishing series of abstract watercolours. Detailed explanations on the back of the works declare that her hand was guided by various spirits, including several Renaissance artists, as well as higher angelic beings.

There is an exhibition of her paintings at the Courtauld Gallery in London from 16 June – 11 September 2016.
An example is The Portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1862:


http://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/what-on/exhibitions-displays/georgiana-houghton-spirit-drawings

http://tinyurl.com/Georgiana-Houghton-images

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/may/05/spiritualist-artist-georgiana-houghton-uk-exhibition-courtauld

[John Sorensen]

Thanks for sharing.

[Sena]

Another "spiritual" painter was Hilma af Klint:

[Deb]

Georgiana Houghton: I love her art! Etherial, energetic and technically challenging from a production aspect. But I can't help but think she looked like a mad woman when making her art.

I liked a lot of Hilma af Klint's work as well, a very different style but I thought the use of numbering, letters to be interesting, almost as if she was producing some sort of instructions. Also very other-worldly.

How satisfying it must have been to produce spirit-inspired artwork like that. I dabble in art and it's usually a struggle for me because I'm too much in my head. When I finally force my left brain to back off, creating is almost like being in a trance or deep meditation: I completely lose track of time and the end results are SO much better than what I otherwise would have tried to force into existence.

[JimK]

@Sena thanks for your postings of spirit drawings. I hadn't seen these before. I was particularly drawn to the works of Hilma af Klint. I can just imagine how many could be focused on for meditation. I definitely want to learn more about her and spirit drawing. Thanks again!