A Sense of Place

No sooner back from Call of the Wild Soul than I was off on another workshop, this time in London, with the wonderful Kat Sloma.  You can find out more about Kat here. 

This workshop ‘A sense of place’ based on Kats successful e-course took place in Hampstead  for the classroom session, followed by a photo safari in the Spitalfields / Brick Lane area of East London. The course also took place on my 39th wedding anniversary but I was given dispensation by my husband on the basis that I let him go to a Grateful Dead concert on our anniversary in 1981 (I didn’t like the Dead at the time I do rather now!)

Having introduced ourselves it turned out to be a small world. I already had a connection with Justine through a photography based Facebook group I belong to, and it transpired that Kat and Fiona had met some of my fellow Wild Souls at an art retreat in Yorkshire last year where Flora Bowley was also teaching. It was also great to meet the other group members Alyssa & Becs. 

The morning was spent looking through the workbook and thinking about what a sense of place means to us individually. The time raced by and after lunch it we headed over to the East End for the photo safari.

I have made a couple of trips to the Spitalfields / Brick lane area recently (here is a really good art supply warehouse there) and taken quite a few photos. There is always something different to see, however, and I had previously only been on a weekday when it’s rather quiet with no food stalls or pop up markets. Also it was really interesting to notice what my companions noticed / were attracted to that I wasn’t and vice versa. All the picture in the post were taken on that Saturday I haven’t included any that were taken on my previous visits.

The first thing that caught my eye was this old fashioned looking  that seemed to be in its own private time zone

Next I  was attracted to this window with its colourful lamps

Then we were into the main drag of Brick Lane itself full of sounds smells and colour. I wished we hadn't just had lunch, the food looked and smelled wonderful!

 Some of the restaurants had very interesting decor!

Another feature of the lane was the fascinating graffiti which was everywhere - I rather liked this one which was more of a collage - is that Patrick Moore in the centre?

I also really liked this sign in a book shop window

Finally as we were heading back I was struck with the wonderful colours of this display of shoes

the whole day was fab - many thanks to Kat and my fellow photographers

Call of the Wild Soul - Take 3

Day three of the retreat I went to Teesha Moore's  workshop. Much more physically relaxing than Flora’s  - you got to sit down a lot! Again there was a wonderful energy within the room. Each day of the retreat the energy has been unique and inspiring. I loved Teesha's laid back style of chatting, demonstrating and explaining, interspersed with stories of her life. She also brought lots of her wonderful journals for us to look at, and the class pack contained lots of goodies too!

 I found getting started quite hard particularly when we stopped collaging and needed to doodle and add our own changes to the pictures. Despite Teesha's warning for some reason I used the watercolor crayon, perhaps because they were a tool I was familiar with, which meant I was unable to write over the surface  with most pens.

Since I have returned home I have made a journal using the method shown on Teeshas website ( loads of great how to do videos here do visit) and have finished the first couple of pages. Now I am finding the collaging the most difficult part - I seem to be resisting going with the flow in favour of locating the perfect picture and generally over-thinking. That said, I am trying to take risks with my doodling and overall am quite pleased with the results. 

 

The whole retreat was inspirational and I can’t wait to go on another one! Aside from the art-making the community created was fantastic and the bonfire on the Saturday night under the full moon and shimmering stars was very special! thank you so much to Erin, Simon, Flora, Orly, Madelyn and Teesha and of course my fellow wild souls!

Call of the Wild Soul - Take 2

On day two  of  Call of the Wild Soul I took Flora Bowley's class. Having already bought her book ‘Brave Intuitive Painting’ I had some idea of what to expect. Flora did not disappoint!

There are very few pictures in this post as I did not take my camera to the class as I felt that paint covered hands and my DSLR didn’t mix too well. I took a couple of pictures with my phone at the end and really regret not taking more.

 

We started the class with a circle and I was reminded  of the book ‘Calling the Circle’ by Christina Baldwin which I read a while back. Flora had made a centerpiece from beautiful things she had found in the garden.  After spending time on introductions and intentions we did some gentle exercises and then danced around the room for a while to loosen up our bodies. Then the painting began! First we created shared Mandala’s before a demonstration of Flora’s painting techniques and beginning to make marks on our paper.

The pattern of the day was that we would work on two paintings then have a break while Flora demonstrated a new technique for us to practice. About half way through this process we were asked to swap one of our two paintings with our neighbour and continue to work on it as our own. This came as a bit of a shock to most of us! One of Flora’s key ideas is that we shouldn't get too attached to our work as this can stop us progressing it.  “Paint over something you like with something you love” 

After several layers she asked us to step back from our paintings and identify what we really liked e.g. shapes  / colour combinations, with a view to doing more of those. We also looked for shapes we could turn into objects. I didn’t think I had any in my picture that could turn into anything so it was a real ‘lightbulb’ moment when I turned it upside down  and found 3 people hiding in there! Similarly I found a cloaked figure in my other painting.

 

At the end of the class we held a closing circle thanks to Flora nad the ther calss members for making it such a fab day

Things I took away from the class were non-attachment, just going with the flow and the techniques Flora uses - I can’t wait to get rid of this cold ( streaming cold and painty hands not a good mix) and get painting!

Call of the Wild Soul - Take 1

I'm just back from the fabulous Call of the Wild Soul art retreat at Croydon Hall on Exmoor. The retreat is the inspiration of Erin Faith Allen and was just amazing. My only regret is that it was only possible to take classes from 3 of the 4 wonderful teachers there. I have decided to write a separate post for each class starting with day one when I took Madelyn Mulvaney's Persisting Soul class, which was based on photography rather than painting. It was a relaxed and gentle day with words of wisdom interspersed with exercises in pairs and a post lunch photo walk.

During the first exercise we were looking and embracing and releasing and went out into the slightly damp and misty garden to take photos.

 

I also used the opportunity to take some of the wonderful moss covered tree trunks in the garden.

 

Back in the classroom we looked at examples of manifestos and began to brainstorm some ideas for our own - here is mine which I finished on my return home.

 

After a delicious lunch (would certainly recommend the food at Croydon Hall) we went on a photo walk. There was so much to capture even though we went a relatively short way. This is just a small sample of the photos I took

 

The second theme of the day  was journeys and destinations and my workshop partner and I took various  photos around the house and garden.

In between all the other activities we also played around with vintage Polaroid film which produced pictures with a soft light and interesting striped effects. I can remember these from my parents Polaroid owning days when striped photos were not seen as an interesting, artistic or desirable outcome, rather the reverse! Still finding it hard to get my head around this!

Finally we did the self portrait section of the class. Each choosing how we would like the other to photograph us and then choosing  a feature  of the other to shoot. my partner chose to have a photo just of her foot with adorning anklet and I chose to take a photo of her amazing eyes.

Finally I chose to have a head and shoulders portrait wearing one of my favourite pink scarfs from Marrakech( have photoshopped the results a bit!) whereas my partner chose to take a picture of my hair.

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It really was a fabulous day - big thanks to Maddy and all the other wild souls!