Painter or drawer mediums are people who "paint or draw under the influence of the spirits" (1). They are rarer than other notable kinds of mediumship (as psychography, for example), however, their artistic works can be impressive, mainly if they paint or draw under very particular circumstances. We already presented here the mediumship of Luiz Antônio Gasparetto, however, other Brazilian mediums followed him and are presently active. An interesting case is Florêncio Anton (2).
Florencio Anton was born in November 1973 in the city of Salvador (Bahia). Since his first childhood, he was in contact with spirits. One of this entities used to warn him on his misdoings and helped him as a family guide. When he was 14 he was initiated to Spiritism after a battle to understand the many phenomena that took place in his presence. He looked for answers to clairvoyance, out of the body experiences, physical effects and other occurrences he was associated with since they always happened around him. At the time, he participated in many activities of GFLM (Grupo da Fraternidade Leopoldo Machado) and was in contact with the thoughts of Allan Kardec, Leon Denis, Emmanuel and many other spiritist authors.
His psychic gifts quickly arose at special seances of psychography, psychophony, and clairvoyance. His first artistic manifestation occurred on December 21 1990 and was conducted by Manoel M. Canuto Oliveira, a civil engineer and expert in psychic phenomena. At night, the spirits invited him to concentrate and pray before several posters and pencils, which were used to produced good quality sketches. However, in the normal state, Florencio has never shown any ability to draw. His mediumship then improved considerably and is today entirely dedicated to painting. His public demonstrations include special ‘painting seances’ performed not only in Brazil but in many other countries such as Belgium, France, England, Italy, Spain, Germany, and others. He often paints with closed eyes and, depending on the picture size, theme and author, Florencio finished a painting between 3 to 20 minutes. He also already painted using his feet, in darkness, with two hands at the same time and two canvas at inverted positions. More than 30000 paintings were produced by him since 1990 under the control of more than 110 disembodied authors of distinct nationalities.
The social purpose of Anton’s works
Florencio Anton supports charitable works at the city of Salvador using the income generated by the paintings.Grupo Espírita Scheilla (GES) is the spiritist foundation started by Florencio in 1999 (together with Sidney Rocha and Ana M. Lima) hosting a variety of pedagogical and psychological free services to help poor families and children of Salvador. Being a spiritist institution, GES manages Comunidade Maria de Nazaré (CMAN or Mary of Nazareth Community) whose site may be reached at (4). As remarked in (2), "it should be mentioned that Florencio supports himself solely by his job as a teacher and Regression Therapist since he, as a spiritualist, is not able to use the money generated through the sale of the paintings for his own use." As a matter of fact, as a spiritist, he is not allowed to use the income generated by the paintings to himself, otherwise, spirits would quickly abandon him. His gift is dependent upon the good use he makes of it.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Franklin Santana Santos for sending me some references about Florencio Antono works.
Gallery
This one is from my private collection...
More painting reproductions can be seen at (5).
References
1 - Kardec. A. "The book on mediums". 2nd Part - On spirit manifestation, Chapter XVI - On special mediums. Translated excerpt from a Portuguese version.
Physical effect are really able to impress the senses, but intelligent effects carry the traces that help to reconstruct the underlying author's personality with much more clarity. (E. Bomfim)
A new article by Erico Bomfim, "Rosemary Brown and psychic art" has been posted in the SKL repository. The article briefly reviews the history of the remarkable British medium composer Rosemary Brown and analyses, from an initial musicologist point of view, her work.
Article content.
Introduction.
Rosemary Brown versus Fritz Kreisler.
Stories of the subconsious mind.
Psychic art as evidence of survival.
References.
Some excerpts of Bomfim's manuscript are reproduced below.
"Rosemary Brown was the greatest musical medium ever. In a time span of only six years, Rosemary Brown composed more than 400 music pieces. And not only music for piano, but also songs and parts of other quartets, concerts and symphonies, besides the beginning of an opera."
"To elaborate the musical material that Rosemary Brown brought to the world, it would be necessary a deep knowledge about a variety of different styles, in all their subtleties that distinguish them. The domination of composition techniques would also be required in order to build a well structured work from the formal point of view, what would probably be equally - or even more - difficult than simply knowing the styles. In short, to compose all Brown's musical pieces, knowledge from distinct musicologists plus the ability of a mature composer would be mandatory. But Rosemary Brown was not neither one person nor group of persons. Therefore the strength of her case."
"Psychic art, as a proof of survival, has a very peculiar value depending of the degree of sophistication and content. Since the spirit is the intelligent principle and true source, an intelligent effect (the very artwork) is an evidence of survival stronger than physical effects such as raps and other material phenomena. Physical effect are really able to impress the senses, but intelligent effects carry the traces that help to reconstruct the underlying author's personality with much more clarity. Those who read an automatic letter or enjoy a work of art have the clear impression that the true author has survived and is doing well."
People cited in the article:
Fritz Kreisler (1865-1972)
Otto Maria Carpeaux (1900-1978)
See reference below for the full article. Reference
Mrs. Rosemary Brown (1916-2001), the famoust British medium to whom thousand music works atributed to several famous composers were dictated.
A never performed work inpired by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) to the remarkable medium Rosemary Brown (1916-2001) has recently been recorded by Érico Bomfim in a special presentation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Below you may find two pieces: the first is a 'noctune in F minor' (nowhere to be found) and the second an 'étude in F sharp minor' with significant complexity (already played before by Leslie Howard). Both pieces have high degree of resemblance to Chopin compositions showing that this composer was very sucessuful in transmitting music though Mrs. Brown in the 80's.
Érico Bomfim is a distinguished Brazilian pianist with only 21 years old with a strong interest in Mrs. Brown work.
The works were recorded at Francisco Mignone Hall in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro on last June 29 2012.
A ballet dancer (*) by Degas through Luiz Gasparetto.
Painting and Drawing mediums: those who paint and draw under the influence of spirits. (A. Kardec, 1861,"The Book on Mediums", 2nd Part, Chapter XVI, 'Special Mediums'.)
The literature of psychic phenomena has many colorful types of mediumship manifestations, of mediums with amplified human skills. These were the ancient wizards of primordial times, the prophets of the Biblical past. All types of human manifestations are, in fact, possible through mediumship including highly specialized abilities such as music composition, poetry and painting (rarely called psychopictography).
The most notorious example of music composition was Mrs. Rosemay Brown (1916-2001). In English speaking countries the poetic mediumship of Patience Worth (Braude, 2003) became very notorious. However, painting is also a registered feature of mediumship phenomenology. Although both kinds of 'artistic mediumship' are extremely rare, when they occur, they offer us many clues about how the process of 'spirit interaction' with the medium takes place. A good example is the mediumship of Coral Polge.
First, we must understand that everything that is psychically produced makes use of what is on the medium's mind. Except perhaps for the case of Rosemary Brown (who said to receive music by dictation), all kinds of 'mental mediumship', depend to a high degree on the medium's skills and abilities. Everything happens as if the medium were a chisel, a brush, a pen or whatever tool that the spirit's mind uses to compose, write or paint. In this sense, if the medium is 'imperfect', no matter how much genius there is in the spirit, the final result will not resemble the work of a genius. Therefore, the quality of art produced by such mental mediums is a direct function of the training or previous ability that the medium has shown.
Luiz Gasparetto
L. Gasparetto in trace delivering a message (in Portuguese with a strong French accent) by Toulouse Lautrec on April 1981 during a painting seance. Some scenes of psychic painting are also shown. English subtitles were added.
Besides Coral Polge, another recent example is in the book 'Is that you, Renoir ?' by E. Dubugras. Luiz Antônio Gasparetto was born in 1949 in S. Paulo, Brazil. Today, Luiz Antônio no longer works as a medium, but his story is worth reading. According to Elsie Dubugras:
A new phase in his life started when (...) during one of these (Spiritist) meetings Luiz Antônio began to feel quiver and pains and suddenly his arms became paralyzed. He was unable to move them until after the meeting was over...After this, he was possessed by an uncontrollable urge do draw. (Dubugras, 1979, 'The start of mediumship', p. 93)
Luiz Antônio attended then another Spiritist meeting among well-trained mediums when 'strange things began to happen':
A medium began speaking in a language unknown to her, while Luiz Antônio, in trance, drew rapidly and answered in the same language...He only came out of his trance two hours later. (Dubugras, 1979, 'The start of mediumship', p. 94)
It soon became a common feature of his mediumship the production of a large variety of drawings including people, landscapes and abstract compositions with no authorship identification. During a short period of time, Luiz Antônio produced more than 5000 paintings. Then, in 1971 his parents took to Uberaba to attend a meeting with the Brazilian medium Francisco Cândido Xavier:
Once there, he was asked by the person in charge of running the meeting to sit at the medium's table. Luiz Antônio took out the sheets of paper and crayons he had brought along and during the sessions drew the pictures that came through. At the end of the session, fifteen pictures were ready and Chico Xavier, much to Luiz' surprise, said that some were the work of Rembrandt. From then on, other spirits of famous painter started to draw through him, signing their works. (Dubugras, 1979, 'The start of mediumship', p. 96)
Some features of Gasparetto's mediumship
We reproduce below the main points summarized by Mrs. Dubugras about Gasparetto's mediumship (Dubugras, 1979, 'Researchers study the phenomenon', p. 100-102):
He works in trance. In other words, in an altered state of consciousness;
The pictures are done at an unusually high speed. The average for simple drawings was 4 minutes, more elaborate pictures took from 10 to 20 minutes. Some were done in 30 seconds. Not even a trained artist could produce work of such good quality so swiftly. And Luiz Antônio is not a trained artist.
The absence of light during sessions, except when they are held for scientific purposes. Bright lights and flashlights cause the medium great discomfort. This has also been found in the case of physical effect mediums when producing materialization or similar phenomena;
He paints portraits of discarnates. Some were of relations or friends of people present at the session and recognized by them. Others have been of famous people of different countries - Queen Elizabeth I, of England; Allan Kardec, founder of Spiritism; W. B. Yeats, modern Irish poet; Lawrence of Arabia and many others;
The total absence of models, yet the figures are anatomically correct;
The variety of styles, each picture corresponding in style with that of the artist signing the work;
The ambidextrous techniques, although the medium is not ambidextrous when not in trance;
The simultaneous use of both hands, each working on a different part of the same picture, i. e., the strokes done at the same time are not symmetrical;
The drawing of two heads at the same time, both hands working simultaneously. At times one of the heads is painted upside down;
When drawing two heads simultaneously, each hand will sign the name of the discarnate artist responsible for that picture. When one of the heads is done upside down, the signature is also done upside down and back to front. This happens at the same time that the other hand is signing the portrait which was done right side up;
Painting with his feet or with his feet one of the hand simultaneously;
While painting, the discarnate artist often talks with the person helping to hold the paper down. See the case of Portinari who describe what he was doing and the meaning of the picture.
Who were the painters?
At the time, several distinct personalities had manifested themselves through him, some occasionally and other more frequently:
Some posing ballerinas (drawing) by Degas through L. Gasparetto.
The musical project carried out by Rosemary Brown (Brown, 1971) had a discarnate manager in the figure of Mrs. Brown's spirit guide, Franz Liszt. In the case of Gasparetto, the rule was taken by Toulouse Lautrec. As in the case of Mrs. Brown, Gasparetto was able to describe several aspects of the painter's personalities:
When she controls Luiz Antônio, he paints calmly and speaks to those nearby in a gentle way.(about Tarsila do Amaral, Dubugras, 1979, p. 103)
Picasso gets the most easily upset when observers move or whispers. There have been instance where, despite repeated requests for silence, the people walk about and talk in low tones. The painter, without further warning, has crumpled the paper on which he was drawing and put a stop to the work and to the session!(on Pablo Picasso, Dubugras, 1979, p. 104)
When Portinari, the Brazilian painter, is present, Luiz Antônio feels the problems of the impoverished Brazilian peasant which the artist still depicts in his own unimitable style. (on Cândido Portinari, Dubugras, 1979, p. 104)
Toulouse Lautrec... is always concerned about the pictures he produces through him and once, feeling that the anatomy of the figures was inadequate, he decided to practice during a session.(on T. Lautrec, Dubugras, 1979, p. 105)
Degas seems to have less difficulty in drawing through Luiz Antônio as he paints ballerinas in the most difficult poses imaginable, even though Luiz Antônio's knowledge of anatomy is slight. (on E. Degas, Dubugras, 1979, p. 106)
'Woman with a glowing head' (*), by A. Modigliani through L. Gasparetto (1983).
What is the message?
At the end of the book 'Is that you, Renoir?' we can find the following passage by Mrs. Dubugras:
Through his mediumship, 5000 psi paintings were produced during the past 8 years and these were in the styles similar to those the discarnate artists used during their lifetime. However, a number of these artists are now adopting different styles, possibly feeling that they came to do through Luiz Antônio, that is, show that life continues after death and that the discarnates can communicate with us through adequate channels such as our young medium, Rosemary Brown, Chico Xavier, Coral Polge and many others in different parts of the world. These changes in style also show that life after death is not static, that man's spirit evolves; by speaking of their previous lives, they prove that reincarnation is a fact.(E. Dubugras, 1979, p. 112)
Although the phenomenon is poorly understood (least to say, accepted) by mainstream science, it can not be denied nor invalidated by words. Rhetoric is incapable of 'erasing' such facts which will continue to exist, in spite of any academic disdain.
References
Braude.S. (2003). "Immortal Remains: the evidence of life after death", Chapter 5, Rowman & Littelfield Pub., Plymouth, UK.
Brown R. (1971). "Unfinished Symphonies: Voices from the Beyond". William Morrow; 1st US edition.
Dubugras E. (1979). "Is that you, Renoir?", 1st Edition in Portuguese/English by FEESP, São Paulo, Brazil.
Kardec A. (1861). "The Book on Mediums", Transl. by A. Blackwell. 2nd. edition by FEB.
Oliveira, L. V. P. de. (2009) "Mediunidade e psicopictografia: reflexões preliminares acerca da pintura mediúnica"(Mediumship and psychography: preliminary remarks on mediumship painting). IN: Proa - Revista de Antropologia e Arte [on-line]. Year 01, vol. 01, n. 01, August. Available only in Portuguese at http://www.ifch.unicamp.br/proa/artigos/artigoluisa.htm.
Notes
(*) All portrayed models represent discarnate entities.
