Skip to main content

How nature inspires my mind, heart and art

Nature Inspiration

Nature has always been the major inspiration for my creative expressions.
What it is exactly about nature that stirs my soul and catalyses my imagination so intensely is difficult to sum up in words, but it fascinates me to consider the principles.

The theoretical explanation of nature’s mathematical language, encompassing sacred geometry, and the effect it has on the human brain, could explain the reason for my wonder. However, I am equally intrigued by the deeper emotional responses that are awakened and my apparent compulsion to create art that somehow encapsulates that essence.

From early childhood I have always been entranced by the visual dance of nature:
The intricate patterns of leaves, the vibrant radial symmetry of flowers, the shimmering arrangements of colours on the scales of reptiles and fish, the swirling spirals of shells, the surreal tessellation of corals.

What is at the heart of this captivating attraction that these beautiful aspects of the natural world hold and how do they cast their spell so powerfully upon me?
Perhaps these are questions that can never be answered and maybe they don’t require answering anyway? But I find it interesting to delve into them nonetheless.

From a geometrical point of view, three varieties of patterns that are often observed in the natural world that resonate harmoniously with me are fractals, tessellation and spirals.

Fractals are geometric forms, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole, where similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales.

Tessellation is an arrangement of shapes closely fitted together, especially of polygons in a repeated pattern without overlapping.

Spirals in nature exhibit proportions of the Golden Ratio (1:1.618), which has been used throughout history, tracing all the way back to the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid. It has been utilised by many great artists, including Leonardo Da Vinci, as the ratio gives an incredibly pleasing aesthetic through the balance and harmony it creates.

It has been proven that people have hard wiring that responds to the sacred geometry of nature expressed in the forms of fractals, tessellation and spirals. The sheer symmetry and cohesion of these patterns soothes the part of our brain that’s constantly trying to make order from the chaos around us, thereby aiding relaxation and enhancing wellbeing.

Aside from the psychological response to these aforementioned depictions of sacred geometry, I feel it’s the manner in which nature occurs without conscious thought, the ultimate manifestation of existing in a ‘flow state’, that I find so fascinating.

Flow is a state of mind that occurs when a person is totally immersed in an activity. When in flow, we are deeply absorbed in what we’re doing, yet there is no feeling of exerting effort.
The state of flowing in all I do is an approach that I aim to achieve and something that nature masters in all its myriad interactions.

Perhaps that’s it? – The exquisite, varied displays of nature manifesting an existence of sheer flow, that excites my spirit and drives me to depict that state of energy within my creations.
Yes, I believe it’s this ‘evidence of flow’ principle, coupled with the visual and psychological stimulation such representations of sacred geometry induce in a receptive human’s heart and mind, that continually ignites the spark of pure, childlike wonder inside me. It’s certainly an uplifting sensation that never gets old.

Thank you for reading my meandering train of thoughts on ‘nature inspiration’.

I hope that witnessing the natural world around you also brings you joy and inspires you to help preserve its beauty for our future generations.

To see some of the sculptural results of my nature inspiration, Please Click Here.

Jamie – FUTURETRO
May 2023