Just for Today: A New Series of Little Gems Inspired by the Reiki Precepts

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Just for today, I will Surrender my plans to God, 9” x 12" x 0.1” Acrylic on Paper, © Deb Chaney Prints and original available on Saatchi Gallery.

Over the summer, as I continue developing a new large-scale series in the studio, I’ve found joy and renewal in creating smaller works. 

These 6 new pieces here belong to my Little Gems Series, and I must say that they felt especially juicy. They emerged from a quiet, contemplative place within me and I’m delighted to share them with you now.

Each painting was inspired by the Five Reiki Precepts, a set of daily reminders traditionally recited before Reiki practice:

Just for today... I will not anger. I will not worry. I will be grateful. I will do my work honestly. I will be kind to every living thing.

Some modern practitioners also add: Just for today, I will love myself and others. Just for today, I will live in harmony.

These timeless phrases became the spiritual foundation behind each piece. They are daily invitations to return to the present moment, to choose calm, gratitude, kindness, and trust.

To mirror this inward stillness, I chose a circle as the focal form in each composition — symbolizing unity, focus, and the conscious decision to see through the lens of love. Surrounded by visual layers and beautiful distractions, the circle becomes a reminder to gently return, again and again, to what truly matters.

Rendered in shades of blue and turquoise, these paintings offer the emotional resonance of spirituality, inner peace, and intuition. Each one was created using mixed media on paper — including local beach sand, heavy body and liquid acrylics, water-soluble pencils, and graphite.

Just for today, I will Surrender my plans to God, Original 9” x 12" x 0.1” Acrylic on Paper, © Deb Chaney Prints possibilities available on Saatchi Gallery.

Just for today, I will Surrender my plans to God is part of a new series of 6 paintings in may larger, ongoing Little Gems series. See all 6 new paintings on Saatchi Art Online Gallery.

The artist I admire the most

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IBHF (inspired by helen frakenthaler)
(c) deb chaney 2008
mixed media, sand, acrylics on canvas
original available , inquire debchaney@live.com

Helen Frakenthaler known for creating the technique of staining raw canvas, a pioneer in the color field painting movment, former wife to Robert Motherwell and a key player in the abstract exrpessionist movement is bar none the artist I admire the most.

Helen Frankenthaler was born in New York City on December 28, 1928, daughter to justice of the New York Supreme Court. She attended the exclusive Brearley School in Manhattan and the Dalton School where her art teacher was Rufino Tamayo.

More than any other known established artist, Ms. Frakenthaler's art rocks my world. I love so many of her pieces. I love her style. I love her work beacause its bold and confident and bursting with color. I love that very seldom you see brush marks...this intrigues me and something I aim to emulate in much of my work.

In an interview pubished in the new york times, she says about her painting process : ''With any picture, on paper or on canvas, the main idea is: does it work? Is it beautiful?'' Which resonates with me and answers questions about my own work and process. Honestly, I hadn't come out and said it so clealry and sycinctly, but this is what is going on for me also when I paint: is the piece working? is it beautiful?

I also think its very cool that in a time when most of her contemporaries were men - Clement Greenberg Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock - She, a Woman, was making strides, making great art.


TOday, yup last time I checked Helen's very well alive and painting in NY, she paints very similarly to me in that she paints in acrylics, painting laying flat and on waist high table tops. Cool.

Here here are some links to some of her work that I adore... Enjoy!

Helen Frankenthaler, Grand Tour, 1983, acrylics on canvas 97 x 124 inches (Can't find it online but this image can be found on page 123 in abstract painting concepts and technique by vicky perry)

Helen Frankenthaler, Seeing the Moon on a hot summer day, 1987, private collection.

Helen Frankenthaler, Southern Exposure, 37 x 34 in, Lincoln Center Institute

Helen Frankenthaler, The Bay, 1963 Acrylic on Canvas
Helen Frankenthaler, Nadar Rising.
Helen Frankenthaler, After Mountains and Sea , New York : Guggenheim Museum 1956-1959.