Everything feels urgent today. The emails, the errands, the conversations you're already rehearsing in your head. Your breath has gone shallow without you noticing, and even the kettle seems too slow.
When everything speeds up, a painting can be the one thing that doesn't move. These four are especially good to breathe with.
Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (c. 1830–32, impressions in many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The famous Great Wave. A huge wave curls above three fragile boats, its claws of foam about to fall. The rowers bend low, holding on. And in the distance, tiny and perfectly calm, Mount Fuji. Look at the wave, then at the mountain. That's the practice: noticing the storm, then finding the still point inside the picture.
Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise (1872, Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris)
The port of Le Havre at dawn, almost dissolved in blue-grey mist. A small orange sun, its reflection trembling on the water, a few dark boats. This painting gave Impressionism its name. Let your eyes rest on the sun's reflection and breathe as if the water were moving with you, slowly in, slowly out.
Claude Monet, The Magpie (1868–69, Musée d'Orsay, Paris)
A field of snow in Normandy, blue shadows, and a single black magpie perched on a wooden gate. That's all. The whole scene is hushed, the way the world sounds after snowfall. It's hard to rush while looking at it.
Camille Corot, Souvenir of Mortefontaine (1864, Musée du Louvre, Paris)
A misty lake, a great tree leaning over it, a woman and children gathering something from a branch. Corot painted it from memory, which may be why it feels like a dream. Everything is soft, silver and unhurried.
Breathe with a painting
Choose one. Breathe in while your eyes travel slowly up the painting, and breathe out, a little longer, as they travel down. Repeat ten times. A longer exhale is one of the simplest ways to calm a racing body, and the painting gives your breath somewhere to go.
Movement for anxious days
When anxiety lives in the body, art that moves can help too. My print Yoga for Energy Blocks follows a single figure, sketched in soft charcoal and stripes, through a full practice, each posture flowing into the next like breath into breath. Each print is hand-finished, signed, and comes with a meditation letter. A reminder on your wall to slow down, and stretch.
Remember to take as much time as you need, and meet me at the next one.
Love, Evi