PAINTING IN THE GARDENS OF ARMA MUSEUM – BALI, INDONESIA

I snapped a very large, waxy leaf off a branch and decided it would make do as a palette. I arranged the tubes of acrylic paint neatly in a row and propped up the canvas against one of the posts that held up the thatched roof above me. I sat down, crossed my legs and looked beyond the canvas to the rich paddy fields and the palm trees that hovered over them as they snaked off in to the distance. The smell of freshly cut grass and blooming flowers perfumed the air and the birds chirped as if to provide melody to this majestic setting.

I was in the gardens of an art museum. I spent the morning walking through its rooms, admiring the various styles of Balinese paintings. There were only a handful of visitors and it felt like I had the entire place to myself - each gallery a shrine where I could pay solitary devotion to the passionate works of great minds. To find inspiration in a place like this was a natural reaction of merely being present. This is why I had decided to go out and purchase art supplies so that I could return and find a place in the gardens to practice my own desire for painting. Since I started my travels, I was writing on a daily basis and found it to be a necessary outlet for all the emotions that I was garnering. To express my emotions with a different medium was refreshing and I found that with every stroke of my brush, I was releasing an array of feelings that I was unable to relay through written word.

I walked back to my hostel later that evening having felt like I had meditated for hours. My hands and clothes were covered in paint, my stomach churned with hunger and I was charged with a renewed sense of self-awareness. The owner of the hostel approached me as I entered the guesthouse and noticed my disheveled appearance. “So, you’re an artist?”, he asked interested. I was flattered by this and responded candidly, “Not really - I’m just inspired”.