“The sun shines not on us but in us.” ~ John Muir

I collected sun themed mandalas from several artists from around the world, each with their own design style, to inspire your mandala practice this week.

Materials used: watercolour paper, Tombow Markers and black Sharpie marker for the outlines.

Angella de Jager, South Africa
I am a self taught artist and have been a professional arts and crafts instructor for the last 15 years. I fell in love with creating colourful mandalas last year! angelladeedesigns.blogspot.com

“Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.”
Helen Keller

“Remember to be gentle with yourself and others.

We are all children of chance and none can say why

some fields will blossom while others lay brown

beneath the August sun.”
Kent Nerburn

Materials used: Faber Castell orange and yellow pastel pencils, Promarkers, Faber Castell PITT artist pens (XS, S, F and B – love the B brush!)

Fabienne Tossi, Switzerland
Fabienne Tosi is a freelance translator living in Geneva, Switzerland. She’s both French and Swiss and her interests outside of her work are to raise awareness about dangerous games to save young people and to accompany people nearing the end of life. She discovered mandalas through meditation.

Maria Mercedes Trujillo A., MagaMerlina, New Zealand
I enjoy playing with colors, I make art for fun and to feed my soul. You are welcome to follow my creative journey at www.magamerlina.com

Neomi Mor, Israel
Neomi Mor is married and a mother to three adult children living in Israel. Until recently she worked as a banker. Today Neomi is a student in naturopathy. She enjoys traveling, good food, books and interesting people, but above all, enjoys painting mandalas.

Just yesterday I woke up before 5:00 a.m. to get over to Coppal House Farm in Lee, New Hampshire to photograph their sunflowers in the morning light.

This is their first annual sunflower festival.

Can you imagine 6 acres of sunflowers? It was a lovely site to behold.

Do you see the pattern of Torus?

We were there so early that the bees were not even awake yet.

My husband Fernando and I love sunflowers. In fact, the sunflower had a special place in our wedding.

You can’t see it from this photo but the path cut into the sunflower patch was a cross section. The same pattern that we explored in the Great Round in Stage 7.  I found lots of different references to the Great Round themes in these sunflowers. I’ll share more on that in September when we turn to the next stage.

Within an hour the sun started to rise and the glow on the sunflowers warmed my heart.

I found myself fascinated by the back side of the sunflowers and catching the sunlight illuminating the petals.

The familiar shape of the green leaves on the back side of the flower shows up in my mandalas. Now I have this photo as a reference for future mandala drawings.

I’ll leave you here. It is time for some sun inspired mandala making.

It’s Your Turn

• How to Draw Mandalas
• Inspiration for your Mandala Practice
• Take the Challenge
• Share Your Mandalas