Visionary art

This is a painting I made for one of the exercises from the book

I am currently reading "Garden of the Soul - making Sacred and Shamanic Art" by Faith Nolton.
From Amazon:

"Gardens of the Soul explores the different ways sacred art can expand awareness and nourish the soul. Through her paintings and writings Faith Nolton shares the creative processes of sacred art — both the inner journeying work and the practical art techniques. She weaves together her own shamanic practice and spirit conversations with her skills as a painter and poet. Her paintings uniquely reflect a world of mystery and nourish the soul."

Each chapter is ended with a exercise, for the reader to explore the theme futher on ones own. 
I always find it easier to learn something new, if the context is a bit systematic. 

It was fun making the tree, but it isn't good enough. It was stupid to glue those flower-rhinestones on, and the leaves on the tree is a bit funny-looking. I used Interference paint from Golden, but it is hard to see from a photo. It has a beautiful shine from different angles. 

I tried to come up with a tree, that represents the Universe. How everything's connected, and that the tree lives in a physical world, but its lifeforce is universal and transcendental. Like we all are. 

I like the background. It was a lot of mess with water, acrylics and salt! 

Down below is the tree from the book that Faith Nolton made. I really like the book, because it takes you through some exercises that unleashes the creativity within. I never realized, that the artform I love, has a lot of similarities to visionary art. 

The Ugly Duckling

I don´t think I ever showed this little painting I made for a artist swap once. The theme was H. C. Andersen, and I made a little painting of the ugly duckling.
The text is: Life is the only teacher or school. I think it is a quote from Mr. Andersen himself.