Clare Barton-Harvey

Blue Tara Clare (Amitajyoti) is a painter trained to MA level. She has studied at the Prince of Wales’s Drawing School and is currently working as an artist and tutor in London. She is a fully ordained Buddhist and practices within the context of the Western Buddhist Order.

"My desire to paint stems from a wish to express the meeting point between the sacred and the profane; in particular, how this is revealed through symbols. An awareness of this meeting point brings meaning and value to my perception and involvement with life. Cecil Collins speaks of his art as ‘a voyage to basic values’ which I strongly relate to. In this sense too, I hope to reflect John Cage's statement “Art and our involvement in it will somehow introduce us to the very life we are living’..I am influenced by artworks that draw on the mythic dimension and the Imagination, for example the paintings of Cecil Collins, Chagall, Matisse and Indian miniature painting, as well as the rich symbolism of the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Drawing has been an essential component to my painting practice since completing my studies at the Prince of Wales’s drawing School in 2003. During this period of study I was introduced to the academic methods of the Old Masters. Through this practice I gained a direct understanding of the visual languages of both western and eastern artists such as Hildegard of Bingen, Titian, Poussin, Cezanne, Matisse and Picasso as well as the artists in the Indian Miniature paintings collection at the V&A Gallery and in the National Museum in Delhi, India.

“The artist has a vague sense, an indeterminate experience of something and this is his starting point. He clarifies this, intensifies this in the process of actual creation of the work of art. And we may say that the original experience of the artist; the creative experience, is like a sort of seed – a seed which is pulsing with life but the nature of which is fully revealed only when …..the work of art itself stands complete..”

Urgyen Sangharakshita

When absorbed in the creative process I don’t know where the work is going to go and often don’t know what the work is about until some time later and this is challenging to my intellect which desires quantifiable outcomes and certainty. The creative process that I am referring to arises through being fully in the present moment and thereby experiencing the innate qualities of expansiveness, openness, and clarity, in terms of citta (heart/mind). It is from this basis that a dynamic relationship can develop between myself and the work (as an artist or a viewer) and at which point the separation between artist and viewer and work diminishes. As Stephen Nachmanovitch has said '‘The noun of self becomes a verb' and he goes onto to say, 'This flashpoint of creation in the present moment is where work and play merge’. So, the notion of our self becomes less fixed and one enters as T. S Eliot would say 'the dance', '...for there is only the dance' . It’s as though one needs to surrender to a more direct openness of mind and perception and to let go of over-identifying with thoughts and the rational mind. This naturally invites a more whole and complete perception/awareness to arise– an awareness that includes more of our experience (body sensations, emotion, intuition, imagination, cognitive processes of the intellect etc..…). The knowledge that the viewer will form their own dialogue with the image and hopefully benefit from that interaction, gives the whole process of creating my paintings considerably more meaning for me.

The artworks tell the tale of the quest for spiritual awakening incorporating symbols and myths from a variety of ancient wisdom traditions. I am becoming increasingly influenced by the need to respect and honour the cycles of life and death in nature and in ourselves. With this comes a specific kind of care and cherishing. The traces of our native animals and trees seem more and more evident to me within the urban environment of London that I live in. They hold some kind of positive presence and offer gateways into the Imagination in terms of the history of the land, its culture and archetypal symbolism. Traces of this forceful symbolism are still present to us today in contemporary forms such as animals used in pub signs as well as in place and street names.

Recurrent themes within the work include universal symbols such as the sun and moon, the Archetypal feminine which arises in many forms yet most notably in the form of ‘Tara’ from both the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist and Celtic traditions, the wish fulfilling tree and the labyrinth which relates to the mystery of creativity.

The stags in my paintings are benevolent creatures representing spiritual receptivity and at other times a ‘radiant guardianship of spiritual values’ which relates to their association with the figure Cernunnos (from Germany and Celtic Europe) who is related, as some scholars suggest, to Virupaksha (one of the Four Guardian Kings within the Buddhist tradition). To the Pawnee of Native America, the deer is a guide to the light of the Sun.

The subject of the work arises through contemplation as well as through the act of drawing and painting itself. Paintings, meditation, philosophy, poetry, sketchbook studies from imagination and the world around me, the media and literature, all inform my work. Once the subject is clear, the task is to bring it alive through the chosen medium and this is only achieved by total absorption in the chosen subject and images."