“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(A subject came up at break that hadn’t been anticipated; I explained to Jane some of the troubles I had had lately re my oil portraits. I thought the remarks would bring forth some response from Seth, but since a shorter session had been announced I didn’t think such a lengthy response would materialize.

You are working with portraits, and portraits are of people. Here is where some of your difficulty lies. (Pause.) You should try to probe the mystery of individuality with love. You are overimmersed, presently, in the technique and the painting.

A portrait must contain a searching and a deep statement of the human condition, a reaching out toward the mystery that is another person, whether the person exists in your mind, or physical reality, or both. A portrait must contain a journey into personality, and the technique and the form will then follow naturally and spontaneously.

You do not need to justify your existence by painting. It is impossible to do so. (Pause.) There are two approaches, either of which would be highly beneficial. The first is to paint a portrait of a person whom you know, trying to portray the essence of that person, their deepest agonies and highest joys, their highest capabilities and fears of failure. (Pause.) This would induce on your part an honest effort to face the raw emotion of another personality, and portray it.

The emphasis would not necessarily (underlined) be upon technique nor detail, though it could be, but upon portraying in one portrait, if you will forgive the phrase, the agony and the ecstasy of individual existence. This is what you often avoid facing.