Meditation on Place and Form

Make time for your mental health, and enjoy this guided audio meditation on thoughts inspired by Arthur Garfield Dove’s Huntington Harbor II.

Step-by-Step Meditation

1. Take some time to look at and consider this painting of a harbor.
2. What forms can you see in this abstract landscape?
3. Notice the artist’s usage of different medium in this work: sand, cloth, wood chips, and oil. How might these materials reflect the artist’s imagination of this place?
4. How might the forms be manipulated in the artist’s imagination? How might the abstraction of this work communicate what this place means to the artist?
5. Imagine what it would feel like to be in this place: What could you smell? What sounds might you hear? What other sights might you see?
6. Now, close your eyes and imagine a familiar landscape that is meaningful to you. As you visualize this place ask yourself the same questions: What can you smell? What sounds might you hear? What other sights might you see?
7. Notice how the form of this place might change in your imagination as you focus on these qualities.
8. Continue to let your imagination take over this visualization and see what arises.

This work is on view in Scaife Gallery 11.

Arthur Garfield Dove Huntington Harbor II, ca. 1926, Carnegie Museum of Art, Bequest of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Beal, © The Estate of Arthur G. Dove