The Mother once said that she began to draw at the age of eight and started to learn oil painting and other painting techniques when she was ten. She added on another occasion that at twelve she was already doing portraits. Her recollection about the beginning of her art studies is confirmed and amplified bya surviving letter to her father dated 1886, when she was eight. In the letter , young Mirra mentioned her art teacher, Marie Bricka. Actually, two Mademoiselles Bricka are named in the letter, Marie and Blanche. Marie used to give Mirra private lessons at home. According to the letter, once Marie was ill and Blanche came to replace her sister. It appears that a third sister also taught art, for the Mother spoke in one of her talks of having learned to paint from "three old sisters" who had a studio.
     Mirra studied with Marie Bricka or one of her sisters until she was fourteen or fifteen. The catalogue of the International "Blanc et Noir" Exhibition of 1892 in Paris describes her as a student of Mademoiselle Bricka. The Mother was fourteen in this year. One of her charcoal drawings called "Le Pont de la Divonne (Ain)" ("Bridge on the river Divonne") appeared in the exhibition. The town of Divonneles-Bains is close to the Swiss border in the department of Ain in eastern France. The small river empties into Lake Geneva. The Mother probably did the drawing on a visit to her maternal grandmother, Mira Ismalun, who was living in Lausanne. Unfortunately, this drawing has not survived.
     The Mother once mentioned that when she was fourteen she was teaching painting every Sunday to a class of small children. No further information relating to her art activities in this period has come to light.
     A glimpse of the inner side of the Mother's early artistic development is of greater interest than any outward facts. We know from several statements in her talks that her conscious practice of meditation had begun spontaneously at  the age of five. A great "light" which she often felt above her head and later penetrating her brain had begun to shape her life, though she could not yet understand what it was. Concentrated work on the purely mental faculties would come at a later stage. From about the time she started drawing and painting, the focus was on perfecting the "vital being" whose domain is sensations, emotions, life-energies:
            " All aspects of art and beauty, but particularly music and painting, fascinated me. I went through a very intense vital development during that period, with, just as in my early years, the presence of a kind of inner Guide; and all centred on studies: the study of sensations, observations, the study of technique, comparative studies, even a whole spectrum of observations dealing with taste, smell and hearing-a kind of classification of experiences. And this extended to all facets of life, all the experiences life can bring, all of them-miseries, joys, difficulties, sufferings, every thing-oh, a whole field of studies! And always this Presence within, judging, deciding, classifying, organising and systematising everything. "
             At a young age, the Mother not only acquired the techniques of drawing and painting but learned to see with the eyes of an artist. She once described what this means, in its most basic terms:
            " There is a considerable difference between the vision of ordinary people and the-vision of artists. Their way of seeing things is much more complete and conscious than that of ordinary people. When one has not trained one's vision, one sees vaguely, imprecisely, and has impressions rather than an exact vision. An artist, when he sees something and has learned to use his eyes, sees--for instance, when he sees a face, instead of seeing just a form, like that, you know, a form, the general effect of a form, ... he sees the exact structure of the face, the proportions of the different parts, whether the face is harmonious or not, and why; ...all sorts of things at one glance, you understand, in a single vision, as one sees the relations between different forms."
             An experience the Mother had when she was fourteen, though it relates more to music than to the visual faculties, shows how readily her keen aesthetic response to beauty could intensify into a sudden spiritual opening, even at this age:
            The Jewish temples in Paris have such beautiful music. Oh, what beautiful music! It was in a temple that I had one of my first experiences. It was at a wedding. The music was wonderful. I was up in the balcony with my mother, and the music, I was later told, was music of Saint-Saens, with an organ (it was the second best organ in Paris--marvellous!) This music was being played, and I was up there (I was fourteen) and there were some leaded-glass windows--white windows, with no designs. I was gazing       at one of them, feeling uplitted by the music, when suddenly through the window came a flash like a bolt of lightning. Just like lightning. It entered-my eyes were open-it entered like this (Mother strikes her chest forcefully) , and then I. ..I had the feeling of becoming vast and all-powerful. And it lasted for days.

see also

Years in the Studio

Life among Artists

Théon and Algeria

Sojourn in Japan

Pondicherry
The Later Paintings and Drawings