{"id":3006,"date":"2019-04-21T08:22:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-21T08:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kirstenharris.co.uk\/thedailyease\/?p=3006"},"modified":"2019-04-21T08:24:25","modified_gmt":"2019-04-21T08:24:25","slug":"the-perfect-circle-a-lesson-from-art-history-to-apply-to-riding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/?p=3006","title":{"rendered":"The Perfect Circle &#8211; A Lesson from Art History to Apply to Riding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Four Winds Medicine Wheel. Print available at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kirstenharrisart.co.uk\/\">www.kirstenharrisart.co.uk<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In his book Lives of the Artists, Georgio Vasari (1511 \u2013 1574) recounts a story about the artist Giotto (1267 \u2013 1337). He tells how the Pope was commissioning art and sent messengers throughout Italy to bring back samples or artist\u2019s work. When the messenger visited Giotto\u2019s studio, Giotto took a brush and keeping his arm close to his side painted a perfect circle in red paint with one brush stroke. The messenger thought he was being made a fool of. However when he recounted the ease with which Giotto had painted the perfect circle the Pope commissioned Giotto, recognising mastery.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whilst teaching in Japan, I took lessons in Japanese brush painting. One of the tasks my teacher had me repeat many times was to paint the Enso, the Zen Circle. The circle is painted as one brushstroke to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create.\u00a0It is a training in one\u2019s ability to be whole in the present moment. The quality of the circle is altered by the quality of one\u2019s presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are a rider I would like to challenge you to pick up a brush and paint a circle. Can you paint a circle freely and with ease? I would suggest that the circles that you ride (if you ride circles) will reveal themselves to you in the circle you paint!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Circles symbolise wholeness, infinity, eternity, time and timelessness, movement, the rhythm of life, unity, harmony, relationships, breath, Earth and our being in the Universe, connection\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By riding circles we have a way to connect to a wholeness within ourselves and our horse (or not!)<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why not give yourself and your horse a break for a bit to train your mind. If you cannot think or paint a perfect circle I don\u2019t think it is possible to ride a perfect one! What do your circles look like? Practise painting circles with both hands.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Good luck!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am practicing my Zen circles\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LINKS &#8211;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kirstenharrisart.co.uk\/\">Horsy prints and other artwork www.kirstenharrisart.co.uk&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kirstenharris.co.uk\/cddownloads.html\">For media downloads including Walking With Your Horse www.kirstenharris.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four Winds Medicine Wheel. Print available at&nbsp;www.kirstenharrisart.co.uk In his book Lives of the Artists, Georgio Vasari (1511 \u2013 1574) recounts a story about the artist Giotto (1267 \u2013 1337). He tells how the Pope was commissioning art and sent messengers &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/?p=3006\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,24,3,29],"tags":[19,172,137,185,112,184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3006"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3011,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions\/3011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ifwisheswerehorses.co.uk\/thedailyease\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}