What is Art Club?
Do you ever watch young children when they are being creative? For a moment, they are absorbed, still, and entirely unconcerned with the final product. It is the act of doing that occupies them. And in their Doing, they manage to simply Be. What’s more, they are entirely unconcerned with rules of making, and also unbothered about whether making things is permitted or accessible to them. They simply make.
Image description: bright green, orange and pink watercolour splotches mixed together on a piece of paper
Most of us lose this sense of freedom with creative pursuits as we get older. We become perfectionists, and we become scared, and we don’t bother. We get bogged down in whether anything is any ‘good’. We forget that creativity is simply a human trait. It is in all of us. And not only is it within us all, it benefits us all. The act of making can help us respond to the world, to events in our life. It can help us process our thoughts. It can act as dreams do, shifting something inside of us without our conscious knowledge. It can serve as communication. It can tell us something, or tell others something. And, more simply, it can just be a nice way of taking some time, focusing on something, regulating our bodies and minds and getting us into a flow state. It can be peaceful, fun, challenging, therapeutic.
I am not an Art Therapist (that is a protected title, and only people who have studied Art Therapy may use it). I am, instead, a therapeutic arts practitioner. What that really means is: I am an artist, and I am a counsellor, and I bring aspects of both of these things together to create creative opportunities for other people. We do not sift through everyone’s traumas in our classes, we do not analyse or therapise or give advice. We simply allow a space where we can settle down for a little while, take some time to get absorbed in something, use prompts to find out where we’re at and what we may want to think about. Some people come to learn something new. Some people come to rest. Others come to have community and a safe space to just be who they are.
Video Description: A sped-up video of a very dark-grey, watery wing shape made in watercolour. The brush paints a new shape in water next to the wing, then joins the water to the wing. The inky pigment then flows up the water shape, making swirly movements and filling the water to depict the shape of a bird’s head, neck and beak.
I use watercolour as the medium for our watercolour wellbeing class for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s easy to clean up! We can make a big mess with no consequences. Another practical aspect is that you don’t need much to work with it. As for skill, watercolour can be tricky to master, but quite simple to use; it’s easy to work with. From a mindful point of view, the way watercolour interacts with the brush, the paper, the water, is so variable and beautiful that you can’t help but relinquish control and let it do its thing. You have to simply see what happens.
Our art classes always begin with a meditation, to help you arrive in the room and leave any jangly life-stuff at the door. This act of stilling also helps us to get into our bodies, to be more in tune with our mind-body connection and enhance our coordination.Next, we discuss the theme of the day, which I always link up with the changing time of year. After that, we work on a few prompts and exercises to help you learn new things, and providing an invitation to investigate yourself a little bit. All of these exercises are opportunities to work mindfully for a while, and none are bound up in the final outcome. You will likely never leave Art Club with a beautiful, perfect final piece of work, but you will leave with a sense of calm, time taken for yourself, and artistic and therapeutic ideas and techniques to use in your own life.