The National Gallery in London has released a set of seven, five-minute virtual meditation capsules centred around famous artworks. We gave it a go and here-s how it went
Vincent Van Goghs Wheat Field with Cypresses, which features in the series, was painted in 1889 while the artist was in a mental asylum in southern France. There are four versions of the work. One of them was acquired by the National Gallery in 1923. Pic/
Vincent Van Gogh spent one year at a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, in southern France. Permitted to take short walks outside, the gleaming wheat fields caught his attention; the scene was dotted with cypresses, which he felt were underrated. So, he painted them. We have never witnessed a magnificent gold field like the one in Saint-Rémy in person. But a five-minute virtual meditative experience that the National Gallery in London has to offer around the artwork, transported us pretty close to the destination.
The art museum recently released a series of five-minute meditation capsules centred around famous artworks including Van Gogh-s Wheat Fields with Cypresses. The other six include JMW Turner-s Rain, Steam and Speed, Odilon Redon-s Ophelia among the Flowers, Rosa Bonheur-s The Horse Fair, Richard Parkes Bonnington-s An Estuary in Northern France, Francisco de Zurbarán-s A Cup of Water and a Rose, and Akseli Gallen-Kallela-s Lake Keitele.
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The videos are hosted both on the museum-s website as well as YouTube. There-s a brief description about the artwork accompanying each video and a note that they are narrated by Christina Bradstreet from their learning team. We decided to try watching the Van Gogh episode in the morning on an iPad. There-s a glitch when it comes to trying to watch the video on fullscreen mode and so, we open the YouTube app to source it directly. We dim the lights to make our screen the only point of focus, and plug in our earphones.
Meditation is difficult and we-re not particularly patient. But Bradstreet guides us through the journey with aplomb; the narration isn-t rushed. You follow the outlines and edges of the surfaces laden with impasto, staring at poppies, flowers and emerald green cypresses along the way. The audio effects are also excellent and bring the cool wind to life. The experience is just what you need to head into a full day of work, but ensure you disable the subtitles to concentrate on the art, not
the words.
Log on to: nationalgallery.org.uk/stories/5-minute-meditations
Expert speak
Dr Amaey Parekh, founder of The Thinking Palette, a city-based venture that conducts art therapy sessions and workshops, and counselling, says that it is important to set aside 10 minutes for yourself - without any external stimulus like a mobile phone in close proximity - to completely soak in the benefits of art on your mind.
“Art allows us to be expressive and creative in a non-judgemental way. There is no verbal expression needed; you don-t have to think before constructing a sentence. Expression just needs to flow and that flow itself is meditative; it allows you to centre ie become one with yourself and your thought process,” he shares.
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