Jaimie Cahlil

I was born in Oxford UK, in 1954, the 4th son of an English father and Swiss mother. Age 6, I asked my father to teach me to draw. Age 16, I was accepted – it was said, on the strength of my drawings – to follow in my father’s footsteps to Oxford University’s classical fine art training at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art (founded by John Ruskin), finally graduating in 1975.

My art has gradually evolved, in the many years since, through light-centred landscape and soulful portraits, humorous pieces making social comment on the un-naturalness of our present ‘civilisation’, and gradually into the kind of work which now emerges from my studio space. The medium I choose is traditional oil paint on canvas, though my application of oil paint is very much non-traditional. This is deliberate, as I wish to concentrate my energies on what I am moved to convey, rather than spend time trying out different media. The way I work is essentially meditative.

Due to the unusual journey my life has taken, now in my 50s I consider myself an emerging artist… painting in an emerging genre: transpersonal art.

My creative process? For me, entering a receptive meditative state prepares the way into an ebbing-and-flowing process, imagery emerging …and merging…like waves on the ocean. A transformative experience in early childhood is evident in the presence of light in all my work. Through feedback received, I recognise my paintings speak directly, deeply – and intimately, soul to soul. The observant person will notice the presence of symbols and archetypes – and often, too, variations of the universal structure of the ancient sacred ‘mandala’ in many of my more recent paintings.

In recognition and appreciation of the work of like-minded others, I offer my transpersonal paintings alongside theirs, in the spirit of helping revive the presence of something transformationally soulful – and beyond… in contemporary art.

Website: http://www.cahlil-therapy.co.uk/