Colours speak to us without words..
They affect our every day lives, emotions and health…
Colours form our self expression...
They diffuse our surroundings and all people…
Colours are a mystery and a language of our soul….
This mystery of colour runs like a red thread throughout my life since early
childhood. It has always held a certain magic for me and in this sense I have given my
extended “VITA” the title “Fairytale of my Life” - which I can send to you on request. Some
of my questions about colour were answered during my varied higher Education in England
and the participation in many Yoga and chakra workshops. But in depth insights and true
understanding of the essence of colour I gained during my studies of the Farbenlehre by
J. W. Goethe.
During his many years of intensive occupation with nature studies, Goethe had realised that
there is no division between knowledge and action. Being aware of this fact, he studied
colours with the same practical methods which are used in natural science and showed that
all knowledge is always, first of all, practical knowledge because it arises out of everyday
life activity and also returns to it.
In this sense I have always made sure to be quite clear about that which was
happening between myself and the colours when I let them float about in the water in a
playful manner. Gradually, I noticed an interconnection between the colours and our
chakras, an ancient Yoga wisdom, and that which Goethe had termed the sensual-moral
aspects of colour in his time. During the following years, it is this discovery which lead to
the meditative Chaquarell painting method in my workshops in England and Spain.
In 1990 I was given the opportunity to introduce my ideas by holding a lecture and
give some of my painting workshops in Hamburg Norderstedt. Unfortunately, very few
people were able to understand me. They could not grasp how and why the images in
motives of my paintings were giving me important information about my inner world. One
reason was certainly that my German was very rusty after living abroad for 30 years. But,
another reason may well be that this topic did not fit well into this time, so soon after the fall
of the Berlin wall and the German Re-unification. However, it is also likely that I needed to
live through drastic personal experiences on Mallorca to gain even deeper insights,during
the following years.
It is in these workshops on Mallorca that I noticed how that in many groups a certain
dynamic (Appendix) would arise which usually lead to in depth conversations and discussions
in breaks and while painting. Occasionally, some of the students would be willing to speak
about their emotions arising out of the colours and images. Yet others would be too shy to
give away their inmost feelings and several students were even ashamed to admit having
experienced them, as if this were an illness. It is then, that I began to see the importance of
writing about this method and its therapeutic and healing aspects. This was also made
abundantly clear for me personally, when AGUALINA appeared one day and winked at me
out of the Heart Chakra cololurs…
Aqualina
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© Ingrid Benning 2022