A SELECTION OF IMAGES OF MY MANDALAS.

Over the past more than 50 years I’ve made at least 1000 mandalas.

Some have taken minutes to create.

Some have taken weeks.

Some have been work in progress only completed over months or years.

This portfolio has a selection of some of those completed mandalas & and my most recent works in progress.

One of these works in progress is a project I’ve been ‘working on’ since 2017. Called “A Book of Elements” , it’s inspired by the Celtic gospels of The Book of Kells, The Book of Durrow & (closest to home) The Lindisfarne Gospels.

It has a rather different focus to these beautiful hand drawn & illustrated books created in the 8th & 9th centuries CE in Ireland & Northumbria.

I’m also working on the largest mandala I’ve created so far with a working title of “NO PLANET B ….” as well as the final mandala “AH” in the Om Mani Palme Hum Ah sequence.

The originals of all my mandalas vary in size from 2 metres square to A2 and down to A6.

Digital - from my own photos on various cameras and iPhones then worked in Photoshop.

Analog - on paper, canvas, card & cloth using a wide variety of media including pencils, crayons, felt/fibre tip pens, inks, water colours, pastels, acrylics & a range of other tools including protractors, set squares, compasses & rulers

Sculptural - created on beaches & in woods using whatever materials were there.

Bowls & tiles - plan white bowls and tiles with patterns & mandalas painted onto them using acrylic felt tips & ceramic paints.

I’ve also included mandalas created by participants in workshops I’ve run.

A project which I’ve been working on for nearly 7 years.

Inspired by Celtic art including the Lindisfarne Gospels & the Book of Kells & art from other cultures, I’ll be creating a hand crafted book celebrating the primal elements of Earth, Fire, Water, Air & Space.

I’ve applied to the Elephant Trust for funding towards the project and an exhibition.

A selection of mandalas created in the 18 months before my heart surgery.

I’d been playing/working with ‘mixed media’ including crayons, fibre tip pens, water colours, gouache, acrylics, inks, brusho & pastels.

I had much creative fun & experimentation.

In a number of sizes from A2 to A5.

I created these using water colours, calligraphy brushes, fine sable brushes & fine black fibre pens on some of them supported by the use of a compass, ruler, pencil & protractor.

 I spent 3 years from 2013 to 2016 exploring the use of water colours & calligraphy brushes.

Around August 2013 I started to investigate the possibility of creating a mandala every morning as soon as I was out of bed. Sometimes it would take me 10 minutes to draw the circle and make the mandala but never more than an hour. An antidote to my practice of creating very detailed fine work.

This coincided with discovering the joys of water colours and calligraphy brushes. The practice lasted 18 months & moved into my creating a series of much more detailed mandalas some of which were exhibited in my Exhibition in October 2016 in Felton.

Please bear in mind that these are digital images of real paintings/drawings so lack something in resolution, colour & intensity......

These are my most recent digital creations. Though over the last 3 to 4 years I've mostly been focusing on drawing & painting mandalas.

They are created from my own photos of the natural world taken on a variety of digital cameras & mobile phones. Most of these photos were taken in Northumberland.

They've been digitally manipulated using a set of templates (originally made available on the Earth Mandala website, for which tools I am grateful beyond words), Photoshop & a variety of mac desktops & laptops. 

Some have been printed onto paper or canvas and exhibited.

These are composite digital mandalas created with a variety of backgrounds & outputs. Some of them have been printed onto large canvases & paper.

Over the last 5 years or so I've begun to play with painting mandalas onto tiles & bowls.

An ongoing experiment using both acrylic, Verre et Faience ceramic paints & Posca acrylic felt tips.

So far the commercially most succesful of my mandalas.

Created on beaches, in woods, gardens & galleries mostly with whatever materials were there. Left there for wind, sea, rain, passing humans & animals to contribute to their dissolution....impermanent creations just like us……

During a 10 day visit in the summer of 2017 to the beautiful west coast of Dumfries & Galloway I went to the ancient holy stones at Carsluith. They've been standing there for thousands of years. Put in place by our ancestors.

“What if our ancestors actually saw the stones completely differently to us?”

Just being there was one of the most moving & powerful experiences of my life. I took a series of photos and from them I'm creating a collection of pictures incorporating mandalic forms, Celtic patterns & landscapes.

I'm using a range of crayons & other media including water colours & acrylics. Here are the ones I've completed so far with photos of some of the stones themselves.

A few examples of earlier Mandalas I created using a variety of media including crayons, pens, inks, gouache & felt tips all supported by the use of a compass, ruler, pencil & protractor  

Please bear in mind that these are digital images of real paintings/drawings so lack something in resolution,colour & intensity......

Created starting with my own photos of the natural world taken on a variety of digital cameras & mobile phones. Most were taken in Northumberland.

They've then been digitally manipulated using a set of templates (originally made available on the Earth Mandala website, for which tools I am grateful beyond words), Photoshop & a variety of mac desktops & laptops.

Some have been printed onto paper or canvas and exhibited.

Many of the mandalas I’ve created now hang in the cottage where my partner & I live in Northumberland.

Others hang on the walls of my small studio at the far end of our garden.

So here’s a selection of mandalas in situ……..

These photos are of workshops I've facilitated in Scotland, England & Greece from 2002 -2017. The MANDALAS were created by young people & adults in schools & colleges, at yoga & dance workshops, at arts festivals & mandala creating workshops.

This is a link to the website for an online novel I'm collaborating on with my cousin William Wade Wilkins.

www.albionschildren.com