Angel Healing Painting Workshop
Natural Health Magazine article by Jini Reddy October 2009

I can’t paint, and never could. I was the kid in school who dreaded art class. My efforts were always just that an effort, laboured and flat. As far as I could tell I possessed not a shred of creative talent, a belief that my teachers didn’t do anything to contradict.
So, it’s rather ironic that I have found myself on what is billed as a healing painting day. I’m all for healing, but through the medium of art? It’s a tall order, for a girl who can’t even sketch a stick figure.
To tell the truth, a chance encounter with the artist Christine Barnett, is what has persuaded me to give it a go. Christine, who is also a homeopath and flower essence practitioner, has for years created and sold for not inconsiderable sums the most beautiful, bright, spiritually uplifting paintings. She sees her workshops as a natural extension of her art and her work as a healer.
‘Homeopathy was where I began to see that there were many people who were holding on to stuff, often grief or anger, as we all do, often in the heart. I realised that we need to have different kinds of ways to release this, that not everyone would feel comfortable coming to a therapist on a one-to-one and pouring out their stuff. At the same time, I was painting lots of angels and hearts and people were drawn to them, so I thought about developing ways to bring both painting and healing together,’ she says.
‘My aim isn’t to make everyone necessarily a painter, but to give them a tool to work through things in a different and creative way. Painting is a way to express ourselves, and show us things we may not have been conscious of. I encourage people to work through any issues that may come up and in this sense the painting becomes a symbolic representation of their journey.’
The workshops have the most tantalising sounding titles: Sacred Mandala, Divine Mother, Butterfly, Sacred Tree, Goddess, Heart Chakra, Numerology, Abundance and Angels. As it happens, the Angel Healing Painting day is the only one I can make. And boy do I need it.
I’ve had a bad, mad make that borderline unhinged week. Maybe it’s down to Mercury retrograding, but I seem to be suffering communication breakdowns, left, right and centre. I’m on the verge of tears when I turn up, even though Christine’s studio-cum-art gallery (also her home) is in the middle of the chocolate-box pretty village of Broadway in the Cotswolds, and the taxi from the station has brought me through some of the loveliest countryside imaginable.
The lawn in front of her studio has been carved into the shape of a heart. I stand right in the middle of it, and feel that mine, is once, again, breaking. ‘Please, please, keep it together,’ I say to myself silently.
Christine gives me a big, welcoming hug, which helps. And stepping into her studio, I feel as though I have entered fairyland. The walls are festooned with canvases of all sizes, covered in bright pinks, oranges, blues and yellows. Some feature faint outlines of angels, others heart shapes. All are mesmerising. It is hard to feel low looking at them, as they simply inspire joy and optimism.
If ever there was a woman who has brought those qualities into her life, it’s Christine, although like all of us, she has had her share of trauma. At the age of 18, she was involved in a serious car accident. ‘It really helped to connect me to other realms and I felt then, as I do now, that I was being protected by angels,’ she says.
The three other women attending the workshop are kind, easy-going and open-hearted. They have either been through, or are going through tough times, linked to bereavement, illness, and the imminent death of a loved one. Yet, oddly, there’s no feeling of heaviness in the air. In fact, I don’t think I have ever been to a group workshop where I have felt quite so at ease. Could it be that those angels are hovering around us, right now?
‘A lot of us lose our connection to the angelic world as we grow up, ’ says Christine, brewing a pot of Love Tea (containing lavender, rose, and chamomile) and dishing out digestive biscuits. ‘Today is about reconnecting to our own angelic energy and guides, our higher self, if you like. Angels are about joy, and sharing joy. And they protect and guide us.’
I admit I have a fairly ambivalent relationship with angels. When I leave my house, I ask them to keep it safe. When I fly, I have a little word with them to keep the plane aloft and to make sure my luggage reaches my destination. When I walk down a dark road late at night, I ask them to protect me. And yet there have been times, when my entreaties have I feel gone unanswered. Where were those angels when I needed them? On hiatus in heaven?
So I’m not too sure what I think of them or indeed, what they think of me. Then I remember that I nearly missed my train here from London I made it with a minute to spare. Could it be that those angels had something to do with it? Am I here for a reason that I’m as yet unaware of? I mean, I really can’t paint, so that can’t be it. (I keep telling Christine this, just in case she assumes I’m a budding Monet.)
She’s heard it all before and simply nods. ‘Though valid in some way, the art we are taught in schools can close us off. If we don’t paint or draw something in the right way, we are judged and we judge ourselves, and shut down. We think we can’t paint and aren’t creative. This is such a waste of a positive and healing aspect of our being. The act of opening up again will not just release painting energy but any creative energy.’
But how to open up, I wonder? There’s no time to worry about it, as to get us in the mood, we each pick an angel oracle card and do a visualisation. ‘This will help you to connect to your angels,’ says Christine.
Alas, I fall asleep mid-way. Still, that’s not before I glimpse a flower-filled meadow and a white horse. ‘A white horse suggests peace and freedom to me, what does it suggest to you?’ she asks. Hmmmm, peace, I think, definitely. Christine also tells me not to stress about my snooze. ‘It may have been what you needed most then, and it would be healing too. Even though you missed the angelic part of the visualisation consciously, it will have gone to your psyche.’
At this point, one of the women breaks into tears. I fear I’ll be next. But the canvases, on a big table surrounded by acryclic paints, brushes and flower essences to charge our paintings with positive intent are sitting there waiting for us. I can feel my heart start to beat a little faster. Oh, dear. I really CAN’T paint. What if mine is the lone blank canvas, at the end of the day?
But suddenly it all gets very interesting. For Christine has a shock technique to get us started. ‘Do this and you will never again have any inhibitions about the process,’ she says. I won’t spoil the surprise, as this is the secret ingredient in her workshop, but eureka! let’s just say it really has the desired, rocket-up-bum effect.
I pull on a smock, pick a canvas, fill a container with water, collect sponges and silver leaf. And then grab a tube of green paint. I mix it with the water, splash it onto the canvas, dab at it with my fingers, make big, dark swirls, like green storm clouds and then,something shifts and I burst into tears. Christine makes me a cup of tea, I wait for the waterworks to subside, and carry on painting.
This time I feel lighter and there is only one way to describe it pulled into my painting. I spray some space-clearing essence onto the canvas to release any negativity, and I work in a meditative trance. To the green paint, I add blue which I splatter on with a paintbrush, I swirl and twirl with my fingers some more, add dashes of white. It is incredibly satisfying. The weird thing is these are not even my favourite colours perhaps this painting is being channelled via my higher self, or maybe it is angelic energy guiding me. All I know, is that if this is art, I can do it. I want to do this. I LOVE this, I think, squeezing on drops of relationship and abundance flower essences to add a bit of healing energy to my painting.
We all work in companionable silence, pausing now and again to admire each other’s efforts. The paintings the others have done, I notice, all feature angels mine doesn’t but I don’t care. There is something otherworldly and serene about all that blue and green I decide. (Later, says Christine, ‘It’s interesting that your painting isn’t figurative and you needed to express chaos, work through it, and then create harmony. And there is a very fluid, angelic energy about it.’)
After lunch, she shows us how to apply silver and gold leaf to the now dry paintings, as part of the process of transforming the difficult emotions expressed on canvas into positive energy: ‘This symbolically turns the process into an alchemical one,’ says Christine.
I work in a silver leaf sunbeam, and though I am tempted to keep on toying with my painting, I restrain myself. ‘When it’s done, it’s done, let it go,’ I think, and realise that I’m not just talking about the painting.
Later, I head home, proudly lugging my masterpiece with me. The next morning, I gaze fondly at it. I feel like I have given birth to something, and feel the stirrings of excitement. A week on, and I have accrued canvases and acrylics and have just finished painting number two. I have not only found a way to express sometimes overwhelming emotions, but have acquired a new hobby, and have well and truly laid to rest the girl who hated art class. Hallelujah as the angels might say to that.
Christine Barnett’s healing painting and numerology workshops run from 10.30-4.30pm approx, and cost £60 per person, plus materials. For more information visit www.christinebarnett.co.uk , Tel: 01386858086

Box 1:
CHRISTINE BARNETT’S TOP TIPS FOR CONNECTING TO ANGELIC ENERGY
1.Acknowledge their presence in your life
Take a few moments to think about what angels mean to you and how their energy may have manifested in your life. It may be helpful to sit quietly with your eyes closed and sense their presence.
2. Trust that you will connect in your own way
A visual person may see actual images , whereas others may feel a presence or ‘hear’ messages. If you become aware of how you sense their presence you can then, with intent, enhance the connection through painting, beautiful music, massage, writing etc
3. Light a candle and say a prayer
Asking for guidance or help in this way will bring you closer to the angelic realm. Try taking a bath with essential oils, light lots of candles, and ask the angels to help to wash away any challenging aspects of your day, and thank them for helping you.
4 . Practise your personal visualization
Imagine going to a sacred place to meet your angel. When you are used to doing this a few times you will find you can access this place very quickly.
5 Trust help will come in different ways
Ask the angels for help constantly, and trust that it will manifest in a way that is right for you. Angels are full of joy and peace and compassion , and they really do want us to call on them and to acknowledge them as much as possible
6. Gratitude
Get into the habit of thanking the angels for joy, laughter, love, and synchronicities whenever you can remember until it becomes second nature.
7 Talk and share.
Talk to your friends about your experiences you will be surprised how many people believe and trust in angelic presence and guidance. Meet up with people and invite the angels in as a group energy.