Herbert H Newton’s Track of Forest Brook
Thank you for choosing to join in with this mindful look at this landscape by Herbert H. Newton.
You might be standing in front of the painting or sitting with it for a few minutes. Either way, notice how things are in your body right now and settle into a comfortable position for looking. Start by taking in the frame around the picture.
What do you see here at the edges of the painting?
The four sides of the frame, holding the image and inviting you into the spaces of this forest scene.
Let’s venture into the painting, feeling your way between the trees, into the gaps. Let your attention wander and weave through the trees and breathe into any spaces as they open up for you.
Now choose just two trees standing side by side and rest your attention there. Sense the space contained between these two trees.
At the base, noticing the distance between them on the ground, and further up the space and colours between the two trunks, and higher up in the branches.
What’s your experience here?
Notice patches of light across the treetops, the spaces between leaves.
Now moving your attention to the lower part of the painting, sense the depth of spaces along the forest floor, created by a stream or brook.
A gap that has opened up and yielded to the movement of water passing through. Resting with the whole painting in your gaze, aware of lines that hold and contain space.
And when you’re ready, come back to the frame around the picture, its four sides marking out this landscape within the space of the room around you. Gently let go of the painting and find your own way to move into the wider spaces of the gallery.
