Discovering Art & Consciousness

                               Art To Your Inbox

The Angel Appears to Saint Joseph in a Dream by Georges de la Tour:

Works of art deliver and reveal true beauty, depth, meaning – and the poignant light,  stillness and tenderness in this image uncovers feelings within that are difficult to articulate and put into words.  Georges de la Tour was influenced by Caravaggio, and we can see that from the contrast between light and dark that he has used here, but his paintings evoke depth not through the physical action and drama as Caravaggio might have done, but instead through their contemplative, meditative nature of the image, that there is something dynamic which dwells in stillness. Art changes depending on how we see it, depending on the type of attention we pay to it – and it is this that may shake us out of a stupor or bring us to our knees with tenderness and compassion or remind us of something that we may have forgotten in life or never even realised was there.  This painting calls us to observe – Look at the expression on the angel’s face; the contrast between youth and age; the tip of the flame of the candle; the carefully curled page of Joseph’s book – we see these details but they also point to something bigger, something overarching. In its endlessly fascinating ways and reaches, art evokes dreamscapes that wake us up- these are not just dreamscapes of reverie, or transcendent, woolly ideas: these are dreams we have ignored and this is a dream which asks that humanity becomes conscious, with eyes wide open, awake, not in a half sleep and takes us through long forgotten pathways through ourselves, through history and through the imagination.  What does this image awaken in you and how might it call you attend differently to the world?

Slowing down and really taking time to engage with a work of art, gives you a chance to pause, absorb, reflect and appreciate in depth one great work of art at a time in the comfort of your own home. Broadening perceptions of art, beyond rational analysis, categories and styles, has proven to lower stress levels, increase creativity and effective action in the world. Art is for the senses, intellect and soul, and has the capacity open ways of knowing and seeing that have been lost or forgotten in our post modern age. 

"Mary does not ‘teach’ as such;  she introduces a painting (or an artist, or an idea) and then enters a process of mutual discovery as a co-explorer." Ms Veronica Bennetts 

Today, almost everyone has heard of the positive effects of yoga and meditation. But neuroscience and ancient teachings tell us that deep observation and appreciation of art is transformative for intellectual, emotional and spiritual awareness individually, societally and globally. It is even more vitally important for us today in our challenging times.

Through my experience of studying, researching and teaching traditional Art History I was always intrigued by the world and stories that art opened up. But I sensed something was missing, something that we had lost. The 'looking at art from a distance' approach meant that it remained as an object; devitalised and dead, something there for our inspection and criticism. But art, images, have a vitality. They are, as psychiatrist and thinker, Dr Iain McGilchrist writes, “more like people, living beings than objects”.

Art was never supposed to be interpreted only literally. This is a relatively recent inherited view. Art opened different ways of seeing and knowing that enabled us to better understand ourselves and our place in the world. Today, our times call for us to re-establish this vital and half- forgotten connection. Without it, we act half- hearted, lop-sided in our thinking, disembodied from ourselves and from the senses, imagination and heart.

View an example:

Mona Lisa
Painting by Leonardo da Vinci

Mary Attwood BA (hons) MA

Mary Attwood is an art historian, author, lecturer and teacher and was the founding Chairman of the Victoria branch of The Arts Society, London, a membership charity dedicated to enriching peoples’ lives through the arts. She is also a qualified teacher in lifelong learning and a Yoga Alliance registered yoga, meditation and mindfulness teacher.  She has also worked as creator, producer, publicist and script writer for her own production company and created an award winning line of wellness DVDs, training courses and has ghost written two books published by Watkins. 

Mary holds an MA with distinction in Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred where her thesis, Rebirthing a Lost Vision of Renaissance Art, researched different epistemologies of art and images from a broad context of ancient Greek philosophy, the neuroscientific approach of Dr Iain McGilchrist’s groundbreaking research on the difference of attention of left and right hemispheres of the brain, archetypal psychology of Drs C.G. Jung and J. Hillman and Renaissance artistic approaches. This is currently being transcribed into a book. She also holds a BA honours degree in the History of Art, University of London, where her studies focused on Italian late Medieval and Renaissance art and architecture.