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Classes are a good way to start practicing art and creative expression on a regular basis. They allow us to go more in depth over a greater period of time. And they provide us with the little bit of structure and "nurturing safety" we may feel that we lack while on our own. They are a great way to casually connect with other artists and get fresh ideas and motivation. They can become "our little community" of like-minded people..

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Inspiration & Flow

In order to create, we need inspiration. Inspiration is the breath of "God"; The in-breath which brings in the new. Once we are full with inspiration, the process of manifesting becomes as natural as breathing out. And this is what it feels like to be in the flow...

At a very basic level, creativity deeply connects us to life as it simply mimics the rhythm of our breathing. Through its numerous phases the creative process also connects us to the cycles of the earth and the cosmos.

Self-empowerment

Creating is living. Living is creating. And we simply can't help it. But actually, we can. We can help ourselves find inspiration - daily, moment by moment - and it is this process that I would like to share with you.

Each atelier (class and activities) will not only bring us to new levels of inspiration, but will teach us how we can access this inspiration in other situations in our life - for example, when we are on your own and we feel "stuck" again.

Exploration & Play

All ateliers are first and foremost about exploration and play, and are designed as much for the beginner as they are for the advanced – even professional - artist. So no prior experience and skills in painting or “art” are necessary: All ages and all backgrounds are welcome. Variety makes life most exciting and enriching, and art is a freeing and wonderful context in which to share and get first hand experience of this diversity.

I also offer private classes upon request.

The rewards

On a practical level, each class and activity will:

  1. Help you develop confidence in your own personal brand of art.
  2. Allow you to experiment with new ideas and techniques.
  3. Give you new tools to stay inspired as well as to identify and remove your blocks, be they conscious or subconscious, short-term, or long-term.
  4. Allow you to recognize and immerse yourself in the innate beauty of your own art.
  5. Allow you to play and enjoy the creative process with more ease and lightness of being. Once we are able to enter this natural flow, it can feel as if we are channeling our art from a place that is much bigger than our mere body. It is when we can feel the Earth and Cosmic energies merge within ourselves. We feel deeply connected to All That Is, including ourselves!

The ultimate reward is our expansion into more joy and sensuality of being by discovering more freedom of self-expression, and to start bringing these practices and realizations into our daily lives.

DESCRIPTIONS OF CLASSES & ACTIVITIES

Below is a sample of the themes & activities we get to play with during an atelier. These are simply general outlines meant to give us focus and inspiration.

As you will see, the underlying themes often overlap from one class to another. This is not an exhaustive list: it will keep on growing as we keep on exploring and new ideas emerge.


This is a simple step we can easily take towards deep but light and gentle self-healing for the inner-artist. Perhaps more than shapes, colors directly access our most basic creative side, giving the inner-child an opportunity to play with a lot of freedom and spontaneity.

A very hands-on class designed to learn about colors in playing with them in many different ways, with several media. Finding harmony and internal healing in creating new colors, discovering new color combinations and interactions that make our heart sing.

Color has always been my main focus in painting. The ways to play with colors are infinite. We can learn in playing by ourselves, and/or with others; and we can also learn a few techniques along the way, as new tools allow us to expand our repertoire, and can also add more fun to our process of creative expression.

This awakening to more play & sensuality, more in depth understanding, and hands-on knowledge about colors can be used in all the creative areas that allow us to use colors: many of the arts, clothing, the home, the garden, business, communication, etc...


This is to re-energize your creative force and find inspiration by stretching into new ways of painting & drawing. Also a "mindless" class where our sensuality gets to be unleashed as wildly as we dare to let it.

This atelier is meant to be experienced as a series: Each class is dedicated to a different medium, or combination of media and techniques. The last portion of the class - or perhaps even an entire class - will be dedicated to mixing media on a single piece of art.

The key words here are play & spontaneity.


This class is focused on our connection to ourselves, our flow, our presence with what is happening with our energy now, and to the sensuality of our experience.

It may be described as a kind of painting meditation. However, there are no rules to this meditation. We simply learn to surrender and follow our process in a very gentle and relaxed way.

This way of approaching painting is very healing to the mind and the heart. It is a special time during which we reconnect with a deep level of caring and love for ourselves.


This class is an exploration about rhythm and cycles, and how we can choose to express ourselves, no matter what our level of energy is; and no matter what our current emotions are.

We will also look at the relationship between our inner cycles - physical, emotional, spiritual - and the outer cycles of our environment: our connection to the natural cycles of days, weeks, seasons, weather and light; and our connection to other human beings in the events of our lives, during challenges, celebrations, etc...

We will take a closer look at our self-imposed cycles: the roles of discipline, routine, practice... Are they the same? What do they evoke in us? Do they improve our well-being and our feeling of connection? Can they be a source of liberation and inspiration?

This exploration may bring up deep questions about the essence of our beingness and how we define each of our unique roles in this world. This is a vast subject that can take us in many directions: ecology, sustainable living, our values, our life-styles, our dreams, etc...

To share our own experience and realizations, we can use a wide variety of media and forms of creative expression: acting, writing, painting, dance, movement, music, crafts, etc...


Becoming conscious of which phase of our menstrual cycle we are in to guide our creativity is rewarding. As we become aware of the unique qualities of the specific energies that we are experiencing in the moment, we go with the flow, instead of fighting ourselves.

Because each phase is different and full of gifts, this atelier is a series of 4 classes which meet once a week for a month. This will allow us to:

Recommended reading: "Red Moon" by Miranda Gray.
www.mirandagray.co.uk


How to make and use simple creative collages to day-dream and explore our own definition of beauty. These explorations may even take on the 3D quality of mini-sculptures.

Choosing materials that inspire us: photos, newsprint, pencils, markers, easy to use paints, our favorite magazines, fabrics, collected objects, leaves & twigs, etc... And a simple note-book, sketch-book, or a beautiful journal made out of hand-made paper. Or a box, a frame, etc...

Helps us develop our own sense of aesthetics & color, and how to create moods. These little projects may later on inspire us for bigger creative projects.


Using writing, drawing and collages alternatively in small sketch-like projects, as a fun and easy way to access our inner-world and our subconscious, while at the same time developing our own personal sense of beauty and sensual pleasure through art.

These “sketch-like projects” are an excellent way to loosen up the artist in us, no matter what our level of skills is. They may also serve as inspiration and starting points for bigger creative projects.


Looking at what truly feels good & healing to us when we practice a form of art.

Painting & movement: dance, slow movements…

The art of seeing: line drawings, figure drawing, sketching, choosing colors…

Painting, writing & dancing with smells: Essential Oils, nature hikes, learning about plants…

Painting sound with sound: Music, chanting, singing, toning, drumming…

Painting taste with taste: Food, edible plants, water…

Touch: Exploring textures; playing with clay & collected objects from nature; mixed media; painting on clothes, fabric, wood, metal, glass, bodies…; Sculpture...

Painting & meditation / contemplation: coming to a sense of inner-peace and silence by creating our own meditations and visualizations with painting, drawing, and creative writing, etc…

What does spirituality mean to us personally? And how do we live it through our art? How can we integrate our spirituality into our art, without the clichés and preconceived ideas of what it "should" look like. How do we integrate these realizations into our daily-lives?


Setting an intention and using a short meditation to create a healing mandala for ourselves or others.

Using the process of creating a mandala as a meditation in itself.

Learning quick and simple techniques of using color to create light in our mandalas.

How and where to find the inspiration to draw shapes & images?

How to access images in the subconscious and use existing objects and images we find inspiring.

Honoring our creativity by appreciating and sharing the result with others.

Letting the mandala give its gift back to us: allowing ourselves to simply enjoy looking at it - perhaps in a kind of meditative state - as a way to bring peace & healing to our heart.


Create & Respond: Each person does a "piece" and others respond with another "piece" with Painting, creative writing, & movement...

Intention & Trust: Exploring the different ways we can create one piece together; or develop one unified project made of several individual pieces. And so on...


Here, the emphasis is on using our creative process in art as our teacher for experiencing more consciousness and flow in the rest of our daily-life.

Sharing our simple & hands-on creative ideas to inspire each other in our daily lives.

A similar class is offered with a variety of other disciplines - Food Preparation, Playing with Essential Oils, Inspiring Nature Walks, etc... It is listed with more details in the Art of Living section.


Using kids markers on drawing paper to create child-like drawings.

We will talk about the benefits of turning this simple activity into a daily-practice:

How we can integrate this activity into our daily-life as a way to reconnect with our inner-child.

A great way to:


Some people tell me: “I am not a painter”. But everyone is a painter. If you can hold a pen, you can hold a brush and you can paint! Yes, something else is required: finding the desire & inspiration to paint. We can take the first condition for granted, but the other can be a struggle, even for the most talented artists.

One way to do this is to learn to ask ourselves the right questions to determine what is really stopping us every step along the way. To find out where and when we stopped trusting ourselves.

A good way to start is to pick a medium we find fun, sensual and easy to handle - something that is not intimidating to us, something to invite the inner-child to come out and play. We may start with some collages, then simple drawings with kids markers or color pencils, or a combination of all of these. Some people may like to use an easy paint like tempera (washable water based paint). Then, as we build up confidence, we can move on to any other media that inspire us.

This is an excellent atelier to develop confidence in our abilities to create images.


This is about entering our own world of magic and imagination, colors, textures, moods, and story-telling. Alternatively writing and illustrating, in a dance that we get to choreograph. There is no prescribed order other than the one dictated by our own desire in the moment.

This atelier is about finding inspiration to write a story and daring to create our own representational images to illustrate it. Or perhaps we do the opposite: we create an image, then we write a story. Both the story and the illustrations can be as simple or as complex as we wish. But it is a relief to find out that short and simple can be just as touching, and beautiful.

Here again, all the senses are called into play during this quest into the depth of our secret chambers... We may even choose to collaborate with someone for more fun and stimulation.

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"Get this in mind early: We never grow up."

Richard Bach





Art & iCreative Expression








 

 

inspiration

1. The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative.
• the quality of having been so stimulated, esp. when evident, in something.
• a person or thing that stimulates in this way.
• a sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea.
• the divine influence believed to have led to the writing of the Bible.

2. The drawing in of breath; inhalation.
• an act of breathing in; an inhalation.

Oxford American Dictionary

 

 

 

 

"It isn't just a few select people with some gift that can channel. And not only can anyone do it, but everyone is doing it all the time."

Story Waters

"To help restore the Earth, we must surely begin by restoring ourselves. Our bodies offer us a steady stream of intelligence - information that courses along our inner pathways, infusing our senses, emotions, minds, and dreams, if only we will attend to it."

Author Unknown