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Art Groups

Laying out materials for the drawing trees day

Laying out materials for the drawing trees day

We set out packs for each person joining the group, with different textures of papers suitable for rubbings and drawing, and a small bag with graphite stick and oil pastels, and a mix of pens too. For the larger and joint pieces we have a… Read More »Laying out materials for the drawing trees day

Life force and lightning Shodo calligraphy

Life force and lightning Shodo calligraphy

At Zen Brush Heart we worked from some inspiring characters related to life and the elements, such as tsuchi 土 – earth /soil, mei 命 – core, destiny, life, and jinzu 神通 – spiritual/ soul power. To get a fuller understanding and feel about these… Read More »Life force and lightning Shodo calligraphy

Tracing the Sutras – Shakyo Peaceful practice following the Heart Sutra

Relaxing and meditative tracing of the Heart Sutra

In the Garden room at KSD a small group of us began Shakyo – copying sutras – by chatting about the history and styles and looking at some examples of the characters such as mu – dream and ku – space. Then we slowly and… Read More »Relaxing and meditative tracing of the Heart Sutra

The flow of water moving along the river, the curving lines of gliding birds, patterns in rocks - Maryhill art group

Freedom to have fun with ink and varied brushes – Maryhill Art Group

Maryhill art group marks 1-2 www.drawingandpaintingstudio from Drawing and Painting Studio on Vimeo. Maryhill art group marks 4-2 www.drawingandpaintingstudio from Drawing and Painting Studio on Vimeo.

Relaxing, making some marks, meditating

Relaxing, making some marks, meditating

We have been helping some folk to find calm and relaxation by providing a peaceful space where we can combine some meditation time, mark making, and notice our senses and environment. In this session we meditated together, relaxed our breathing, listened to some poetry and… Read More »Relaxing, making some marks, meditating

Imagining passing clouds and rugged mountain ranges - Maryhill art group

Imagining passing clouds and rugged mountain ranges – Maryhill art group

After listening to some inspiring poetry about clouds and mountains, including Hanshan’s about a path through mountain scree and boulders, we made some loose drawings of hill ridges and wispy floating clouds. Everyone’s work was different – capturing the feel of the elements and mystery… Read More »Imagining passing clouds and rugged mountain ranges – Maryhill art group

Ruchill children drawing stones, shells, a sea urchin and an olephaunt!

Ruchill children drawing stones, shells, a sea urchin and an olephaunt!

The North United Communities after school group (Primary years 5 to 7) played around with acrylic inks and different brushes and twigs, working from a selection of natural objects like stones and shells. One of the boys was more into drawing a Tolkienesque olephaunt which… Read More »Ruchill children drawing stones, shells, a sea urchin and an olephaunt!

Exploring the characters for Brightness - Koumyou - at Zen Brush Heart

Exploring the characters for Brightness – Koumyou – at Zen Brush Heart

Some fluid markmaking with the Japanese fude brushes and sumi ink was a nice relaxed way to start the group, before working with the characters 春 Haru – Spring – and 光明 Koumyou – Brightness. We had fun trying out the expressive shapes of the… Read More »Exploring the characters for Brightness – Koumyou – at Zen Brush Heart

Tree drawings by Margaret Kerr and Blair Thomson

Preparing for a drawing trees day in June

We are preparing for a summery day of drawing trees in the countryside outside Glasgow near Lenzie with Margaret Kerr. The day will be on the 2nd of June. It will be nice to be outside and engage with the trees and nature through our… Read More »Preparing for a drawing trees day in June

Shodo practice

Preparation for Zen Heart Brush

We will try working from the old visual pictgrams, first curved into shell and bone, for kou (光) and myou (明). Koumyou means radiant light, which combines well with our other character Spring (春)! We will look at the tensho as well as kaisho styles… Read More »Preparation for Zen Heart Brush