This painting uses the same grid as Breath of the Compassionate, only with the crosses rotated.

First I did a layer of pure experimentation with color, gestural brush strokes, texture.

Then I laid out the grid and puzzled for a while about how to treat the crosses--trying out many different ideas. Finally I settled on this very simple color gradation, from gray to red-brown, which has a kind of movement and glow.

Finally, within each octagonal star I painted a small mandala using symmetries from one to thirteen.