Woman Transforming Sword

This painting is about shedding old ways and healing myself from childhood wounds. When I first started painting Woman Transforming Sword, I got very stuck in painting her correctly. How was the sword transforming itself? Was she pulling it up? What did that look like? I kept getting in my own way because I was thinking too much about what the painting should look like.

I ended up stopping, setting the canvas aside, and letting go of all my preconceptions, and starting over on a new canvas. I learned to become still, so I could hear how the woman wanted to be painted. When I let go in my mind and listened from my heart, she painted herself.

Acrylic on canvas. 15 X 30 inches.
@2009 Annette Wagner.

Woman Transforming Sword prints and cards available through Fine Arts America.