Max Gimblett, Cassandra Gaisford and inspiration

There’s nothing more inspiring than being with like-minded people and studying with the greats.

I entered an art award once, just for the fun, and won! When they told me I have won the supreme award and thousands of dollars, I said, “That can’t be right. You’ve made a mistake. That other painting was better. That artist should have won.”

No, they said, “The judges were unanimous, they loved yours. It was different.” I used my winnings to join Max Gimblett for a never-to-be-repeated Sumi ink painting class he held in Maui, Hawaii. 

It’s with him that I learned the art of flow.

Persevere with your mid-life; bring into consciousness your childhood dreams, for they will become your living realities.

As Max, wrote in the forward to my book  Mid-life Career Rescue,  “Persevere with your mid-life; bring into consciousness your childhood dreams, for they will become your living realities.” As an adult now in midlife, I have waved goodbye to my corporate career and made child-like joy my passion and purpose. 

As an adult now in midlife, I have waved goodbye to my corporate career and made child-like joy my passion and purpose. 

My mission is to share beauty, joy and happiness with my clients and collectors. As an artist (and Libran ruled by Venus, the planet of love), the best words I can ever hear are: I love…I love… the painting. . .I love…your work. . .I love…your effervescence. . .I love…the workshop. . .I love…you. It’s validation that when I show up for love, beauty and joy it matters to others too.

Flow, Cassandra Gaisford, circa 2001

Acrylic on canvas, 1190mm x 1800mm

This painting is for sale from my website

My trip to Maui and my time with Max remains one of the most treasured times of my life. I am so thankful for the opportunity and that I seized the moment and went with the flow. The other day I came across a photographic album with memories of this time.

As I share in my book, The Art of Life: Thriving Through Chaos: Insights and Inspiration to Spark and Sustain Your Creative Life and my upcoming release, Landscapes of My Mind: Colour, Light & Beauty.

Flow is one of my most joyous creations and, at the time, one of the first large colour field paintings I ever created. It was some 20 years ago now. I still remember painting this outside on the grass at the farm where my grandmother and later my father lived until he died. 

My paternal grandmother bred horses for a living, and I recall around six of them standing around the painting as I washed the canvas in fields of colour. It was a magical time, a memory I still hold in my heart. I reached out to my friend and muse, Max Gimblett, for some wisdom when embarking on this new fluid style. 

Max is a Zen Buddhist Monk and fellow artist and one of the only New Zealander artists to have exhibited at the Guggenheim in New York. 

I asked him, “How do you know when you’re finished?”

“Don’t overwork it,” he said, “The painting will tell you. You’ll feel it in your heart.”

And that is how my painting flowed. There was a moment, a joyous moment, when I just knew the painting was finished. Twenty years later, this painting hangs in my home and still evokes joy.

I used one of the enso sumi ink paintings l created with Max as the cover for one of my most popular and life-changing books, How to Find Your Passion and Purpose: Four Easy Steps to Discover A Job You Want And Live the Life You Love. 

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