Unlock the stories behind the artwork of Cassandra Gaisford & experience the influence of Mark Rothko. Learn the secrets of creative growth like a child.
People often ask where do I grab my inspiration from. So often my inspiration comes from the stories people share with me—their hurts, their pain…and their joy. But inspiration also comes from travel. It was in Paris that I first saw the works of American artist Mark Rothko and his large, spiritual, transcendent flow paintings.
In one of Rothko’s earliest essays, “New Training for Future Artists and Art Lovers” (1934), the artist emphasized the creative benefits of approaching art like a child might—instinctively, without the guidelines of overbearing instruction. By watching children work, he wrote, “you will see them put forms, figures, and views into pictorial arrangements, employing of necessity most of the rules of optical perspective and geometry, but without the knowledge that they are employing them.” This may be why, he wrote, “their paintings are so fresh, so vivid and varied.” He added that an artist of any skill level should seek to “make his work arresting and provoking of attention.”
What’s more, Rothko advised artists to naturally express emotions and experiences, like children do, in order to develop their own unique style.
Te Ataroa, 2020 900 mm x 1200 mm Acrylic on board, framed in Ash by Peter Sharp.
Te Ataroa is one of my flow paintings, inspired by Mark Rothko. The name of the painting was inspired by a beautiful baby who was only three months old when I saw her while she was with her mum shopping for groceries. Her name was Te Ataroa, which her mum told me translated from Maori means, long morning. I love mornings—lying in bed gazing across the land toward the sea, then drifting up at heavenly clouds
The young couple had lost a little girl who, a year earlier, was stillborn. Their new daughter, Te Ataroa was such a special blessing.
As I painted the artwork I imagined Te Ataroa’s sister shining down from heaven, sending her family endless kisses across the morning sky. The colours were inspired by the pretty little pink, white, and green floral dress Te Ataroa was wearing when I met her.
I showed the young couple a photo of the painting and they told me that their mother wept. After exhibiting this painting in a group exhibition, The Beauty of Resilience, just as New Zealand emerged from the first Covid lockdown in 2020, I gifted this painting to the family.
My group exhibition, “Return To Love” featuring botanical photography by Jane Ussher and sculpture by Grant Gallager, inspired a flurry of colourful, heart-inspired paintings.
Return to Love opened Easter Friday and showed until Anzac Day, Monday 26 April 2021.
The exhibition’s name referenced the importance of love, beauty and art in these chaotic times and how needful it is for our mental health and resilience to have this love-inspired beauty around us. This is how Mark Rothko and his quest for beauty inspires me.
Festival of Colour was created in the studio during the full moon 2021 energy of Libra— joy, happiness, love, beauty…colour gives it all.
One of my great loves continues to be the joy and blessings colour brings to me, especially when I surround myself with colour in my home.
My other loves are painters that inspire me:
Van Gogh and his bold, colourful, healing creations that makes my heart ache.
Helen Frankenthaler and her large, innovative, flow paintings and her quest to capture and create beauty.
Inspiration for your place, at ours…
I am delighted that, while many of my works are inspired by tales of sadness and made during the lengthy periods of COVID-imposed isolation, people tell me that my paintings elicit joy and a remarkable sense of hope-inspired optimism.
To create and capture vibrant memories, past and future, and transform sadness into love-infused beauty is my grand passion.
I Bought You Flowers, 2023, Cassandra Gaisford…SOLD to an overseas collector.
Pretty Gorgeous, 2021, Cassandra Gaisford
Reminds me of an iris in bloom” ~ Rachel Barber
270 cm x 150 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Dm if you’d love Pretty Gorgeous to be yours, yours, yours.
You may enjoy this video, where I discuss getting started, expressing emotion, variety in color and composition, and why art offers hope, healing, and resilience. I share how I created my large abstract landscape, “Pretty Gorgeous,” – from getting started to the finish.
To learn more about the process of this commission you may enjoy reading my blog: https://www.thejoyfulartist.co.nz/how-to-commission-a-painting/
Despite his success, Rothko struggled with depression throughout his life. He viewed his work not as decoration but as a means of expressing deep human truths, and as time went on, those truths seemed increasingly bleak. By the 1960s, his paintings had become darker, reflecting a deepening personal despair. Gone were the vibrant oranges and yellows of his earlier works, replaced by brooding maroons, grays, and blacks.
His physical health also declined. Years of heavy drinking and smoking took their toll, and he was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm in 1968. Doctors advised him to rest, avoid alcohol, and reduce stress—advice he largely ignored. His marriage to Mell Rothko disintegrated, and they separated in 1969. Estranged from his family, suffering from ill health, and facing an existential crisis about his artistic legacy, Rothko became increasingly isolated.
The Final Hours
On the morning of February 25, 1970, Rothko was found dead in his East 69th Street studio. He had slit his arms with a razor blade, leaving behind a scene of devastating finality. Nearby, one of his last works—a stark, nearly monochrome canvas—stood unfinished. The contrast between his art, which many found deeply spiritual, and his own inner suffering is heartbreaking.
His suicide shocked the art world. Some saw it as the final statement of an artist whose work had always flirted with existential despair. Others speculated about his declining health and personal struggles. Whatever the reasons, Rothko’s death underscored the intensity with which he lived—and suffered—for his art.
Legacy and Reflection
More than half a century after his passing, Rothko’s paintings continue to captivate and move audiences. The Rothko Chapel in Houston, completed after his death, stands as a monument to his vision: a meditative space where his final paintings serve as a quiet dialogue between darkness and light.
Rothko once said, “A painting is not about an experience. It is an experience.” His life, filled with both artistic triumph and deep pain, reminds us that art can serve as both an escape and a confrontation with the self. In the depths of color and the silence of his canvases, we find echoes of a man who felt everything—perhaps too much.
I wonder what Rothko would have made of this world and the descent into darkness with perpetual wars, malice, and greed? I suspect, it would have all been too much.
Vincent Van Gogh once said “Art is to console those broken by life.” My super collector is an optimist, a lover of beauty and life but to say that he has a lot going on in his world at the moment is an understatement.
In 2024 he purchased, Star Dust, the large beeswax I created after my mother suddenly died in 2022, created when I, myself, felt broken. And now, in 2025 he has added two more of my pieces to his collection—Spark of Fun, created during joyful moments by art participants in my workshops—broken by all the Covid restrictions and pandemic of fear and searching for joy. And how this gorgeous artwork, Palace of The Heart.
A colourful piece reminiscent of the beauty of flowers, for which it is named, but also the ebb and flow of the ocean and the spiritual power of rainwater, with which it’s infused.
My garden, a rich tapestry of colours, has been the inspiration for this artwork. It’s a vibrant reflection of the exotic shades that come to life in the flora of my garden.
Seductive, sensuous pinks, lavenders, violets, emerald greens and turquoises are employed to pamper, soothe and delight. Playful, spontaneous and gestural strokes imbue this painting with new life.
It is lovely knowing that Palace of The Heart will hang in his Bay of Islands home overlooking the sea.
How beautiful it is to know Palace of The Heart will hang in his Bay of Islands home overlooking the sea sharing her love light!
Thank you to all my collectors and those who like and comment on these posts for loving my art—it means the world to me knowing that the beauty I love, thanks to you, is the work that I do (to paraphase Rumi)
p.s. Rothko’s Earlier Works May Surprise You>>
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Posted in: Blog
ABOUT CASSANDRA
I am an artist, storyteller, intuitive guide, mentor and Reiki master. All my creations are infused with positive energy , inspiration, and light. I believe in magic and the power of beauty, joy, love, purpose, and creativity to transform your life. My greatest joy is helping your realize your dreams. That makes my soul sing!
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