“Lose yourself in Nature and find peace” the caption read on a poster in my room when I was young.
The photo exhibited a fawn, illuminated in sunlight, surrounded by lush dense forest.

We had recently moved to town from the wilderness of the park.
I kept the poster above my bed reminded me of the home where I would run free outside our door into secluded lakeside forest.

In her recent Ted NPR, Tierney Thys states a startling fact.
The average American spends 90% of their time indoors.

As of 2010 humans have become an urban species, separated from the landscapes and seascapes we have evolved from, she insists.

Thys mentions desire to exercise our brain, increase focus & concentration, speed healing, release stress, increase energy, inspire creativity- what delivers all these and more?
Surround ourselves with nature, she says.
What’s really exciting about recent studies, if people are unable to venture outdoors, just imagery of nature can have a powerful effect.

Thys quotes a study by Roger Ulrich in hospital patients, with rooms viewing trees required less pain med’s and healed quicker.

Could nature imagery help defray that growing deficeit and if so, how, she queries.
Which habitats calm us, or inspire us? Teaming up with National Geographic on a study how nature engages the brain, she states this research will help provide guided nature imagery when we are separate from the wild, to “reconnect us all’

What I find fantastically inspiring, of these studies, not once have I found the subjects were nature lovers or art lovers at all.
It isnt’ a requirement for the work to have an impact on your lives in a multitude of ways.

New Tundra 18×36 Oil

The powerful effect of art and imagery is something artists have long known. It’s just nice to have science spreading the news.

~ on a side note
Customers have placed paintings in a nursery to calm a baby, in offices to inspire creativity, above dining tables and in gyms, family gathering living rooms, or, interestingly, at a lakeside cottages.

The paintings I did for my Mom’s bedside in hospital she delighted in, calling them ‘healing paintings’. It wasn’t a surprise she felt this way, she had an amazing connection to the work.
The surprise for me, was the effect the art had on the hospital staff. Never underestimate the power of art.