"Meditating Shiva", original oil painting. Spirit of a Running Horse.

In my latest blog I promised you two horse paintings. The second one is connected to the meditating Shiva.

Shiva is the destroyer/ transformer of the Universe, one of the Great Trinity together with Brahma and Vishnu. Shiva is a Supreme Being; Lord of Meditation, arts, yoga, dance, Supreme destroyer of evil and Lord of the devas.

The destroyer part of Shiva is represented by the volcanoes in the painting, which bring destruction but which also form new land upon which new things come to birth, out of the ashes of the old dying world.

The free spirit of Shiva is represented by the running horse, which is running on the hot lava from the volcanoes, unharmed.

Somehow, I always felt that there is lots of peace and stillness contained within movement. That is why meditation and a running horse seem very close to each other, at least to me.

The flowers growing at the bottom left corner of the painting are Datura flowers. The datura is a highly poisonous plant that is one of the flower traditionally offered in worship to Shiva. The underlying meaning in offering these flowers to Shiva is asking him to take away the evil / bad / jealousy , the poison in us and bless us with Enlightenment.

It is noteworthy that I completed this large 6 feet tall oil painting in less than a week. Actually in 4 days, which is a proof to me that I was in easy flow, delivering a message that was beyond my busy mind or ego.

If you look well you might notice the outline of a "Dancing Shiva" in the background, which is probably the most common, four handed depiction of this deity.

Next time I will show you step by step process.

I hope you enjoyed this little introduction of Shiva and my depiction of him.

Thank you for your upvotes and comments,

Much Love,

Jan
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