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For most painters, the challenge of a blank canvas is technical. For Michael Doochin, it is sacred. When he begins an abstract, he is not simply composing a picture. He is entering a dialogue with the unknown.
His large-scale abstract work Genesis is the clearest expression of this spiritual process. Built over weeks of slow, layered creation, the painting reveals not only his command of color and structure, but also his ability to channel presence into form. “Genesis was a kind of pilgrimage,” he says. “I was searching for balance. For meaning. And it only came together at the very end.”
Unlike his realist works, which often draw from photography, memory, and travel, Doochin’s abstracts are born without maps. He begins with a single feeling, a rhythm, or a color that has called to him, sometimes for days. From there, the painting takes shape slowly, with intuition leading the brush. “I never know what the painting will become. I only know I need to start.”
Genesis began like that. A pull toward certain colors. An awareness of imbalance. He moved from one corner of the canvas to the other, layering shapes, creating tension, listening. “For the longest time, it felt like the painting was resisting me,” he says. “There was no center. No logic. But I kept working, because I knew something was happening.”
The turning point came with a final brushstroke. Suddenly, the parts aligned. The colors settled. The composition felt whole. “That moment was a revelation,” he recalls. “Not just that it was finished, but that I had been guided the entire time.”
This kind of process is not new for Doochin. A Certified Healing Touch Practitioner and long-time student of energy medicine, he brings a vibrational intelligence to every canvas. “Color isn’t neutral,” he says. “Each shade carries its own frequency. Sometimes I paint for my own healing. Other times, I know the painting is meant for someone else.”
Genesis contains those energetic layers. The textures are deep. The color transitions include bold reds, meditative blues, and grounding ochres, which together form a visual language of emergence. The painting doesn’t illustrate creation. It embodies it.
“I call them concretes, not abstracts,” Doochin says. “Because what I’m painting is very real to me. These are moments of energetic alignment, actualized into form.”
The influence of his spiritual practice is everywhere. Chakras. Kabbalah. Vibration. Presence. But none of it feels imposed. It emerges through the work itself. “I don’t try to explain the meaning. The painting knows what it is. My job is to bring it through.”
Collectors of his work often describe Genesis as transformative. Some say it calms them. Others feel energized. One noted the sense of movement, not visual but emotional, that the painting creates in a room. “It’s not something you look at. It’s something you feel,” one viewer wrote.
Doochin doesn’t try to produce work for the market. He paints only when moved. And he often spends weeks or months on a single piece. His relationship with each painting is devotional. “I would rather make one painting that holds meaning than ten that just take up space,” he says.
His technique is demanding. Thick layers. Palette knife sweeps. Careful color transitions that create depth and resonance. He avoids predictability and repetition. Each abstract is its own experiment. “Sometimes I ask myself why I choose something so difficult,” he admits. “But I ask the universe for help, and it answers.”
Genesis is more than a painting. It is a philosophy. A visual meditation on trust, creation, and the quiet power of emergence. It is also a turning point in Doochin’s body of work, a moment when his spiritual studies, healing practices, and painterly instincts came together in one bold, resonant voice.
In an art world often driven by trends and productivity, Michael Doochin stands apart. His commitment is not to style; it is to truth, to process, to the sacred.
“When Genesis was complete, I realized it had been building itself the entire time. I was just the one holding the brush.”
For those who encounter it, Genesis is a reminder. That we do not always need to know what we are building. Only that we are called to begin.
Emergence and Mastery: A Portrait of Artistic Exchange
Portrait of Michael Doochin by Burton Silverman
In this portrait of Michael Doochin, Burton Silverman does more than paint a face. He paints a connection. The work hums with the quiet dialogue between two artists, one seasoned and one emerging. Doochin’s presence feels both grounded and visionary, a symbol of the new energy he brings to an evolving art landscape.
Michael Doochin (left) and Burton Silverman
Photo of Michael Doochin
Discover more of Michael Doochin’s creative work by visiting his online gallery, which features a carefully curated selection of his paintings. His books—such as The Tzaddik and The Mystical Naturalist—blend lyrical narrative with profound spiritual reflection. His captivating photography, documenting cultural moments from over 70 countries, is also available through the Smithsonian’s online library archive.
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This content is brought to you by AbdurRehman Noor
Photos provided by the author.
