At Shodō calligraphy for our first group this Tiger year (Tora in Japanese), we peacefully brushed the very airy and natural feeling Genpū 玄風 . This is a lovely zen word that can mean mysterious winds, meaning the profound teachings of the ancient zen teachers… Read More »Shodo Brushing the Winds of the Ancient Teachings
After New Year our De-stress drawing group returned for some more relaxing doodling and drawing. We had a nature up close theme which was fun and also captivating, enjoying the colours and doodling patterns and fractals and close ups of natural living things 🦋🍀 Together… Read More »Nature up close – De-stressing with mindful drawing
At the start of the year our theme for our language and cultural Kanji Club was 天気 Tenki – Weather, literally Heaven’s Energy. Having been wintry in Glasgow and for many of the zoom participants elsewhere, it was perfect timing for our kanji exploration of… Read More »天気 Tenki – Snowy Weather at Kanji Club
At our popular アニメ Anime drawing and doodling group in December on Zoom, we had a fun and relaxed time drawing our best loved characters from anime and manga 😁 Blair gave images to help inspire participants as well as detailed demos at the group.… Read More »Drawing Anime and Manga characters
At Shodō calligraphy for our last group together in 2021, we had great fun brushing the lovely loose characters of Shikantaza 只管打坐 , about Zen sitting meditation (Zazen). We enjoyed exploring the kanji characters together in the semi cursive Gyōsho style and the quirky old… Read More »Brushing Shikantaza at Shodō Zen Calligraphy
At the De-stress drawing group we had a magnetic and mysterious lunar theme inspired by the autumn and winter moon 🌜🌑🌙🌕 which had been appearing shyly through the clouds on recent nights. It was a very relaxing group with a nice peaceful vibe, and some… Read More »Relaxing drawings of the mysterious moon at De-stress
The theme for November at our language and cultural Kanji Club was the Four Seasons – 春夏秋冬 Shunkashūtō, literally meaning Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter 🌸🌻🍂🍢 These four kanji appear often in seasonal words and many topics such as travel. We learned to read, pronounce and write… Read More »Learning the Four Seasons at Kanji Club
Our Tenkoku Japanese and Chinese stamp making group explored composition and how to create movement and atmosphere. We had some images of sunshine, figures and spears too in the old tensho seal engraving characters ✨ We also enjoyed some carving, chipping away at our stones. Blair… Read More »Light and Movement at Tenkoku Stampmaking
De-stress and Express helped young people and children engage with the arts and develop art skills and confidence. Blair especially guided them to be creative mindfully and relax, as well as learn to use new art materials and techniques! As the project continued and more young… Read More »Youth Arts Project – De-stress and Express, Part 2
Moving deeper into autumn 2021 Blair continued working with the young people from North United Communities (with funding from Creative Scotland and Glasgow Connected Arts Network) leading the Manga, Anime and Comic Project. As the project developed with input from the young people we explored the… Read More »Manga, Anime and Comic Project for Young People, Part 2