Our May Zen Brush was very relaxed and an enjoyable time brushing together. We worked with two characters u mu 有無, which together can be translated as something like – ‘nature of being is free and untethered’. We brushed them in the kaisho style, tried… Read More »Shodo brushing the curves of 有無 Umu
Our May De-stress doodling (on the third Wednesday each month) had a theme of flowing soothing water, with currents and ripples twisting along riverbanks. It was a chilled zoom group with a happy atmosphere (with folk joining from North America as well as the United… Read More »Soothing meandering lines and relaxing ripples
We had a 美味しい oishii tasty foodie theme of Obento lunchbox and takeaway meal at our May Kanji Club! ? Looking at our own example obento box and how to use it got the group started ?? This has been enjoyed and used many times! ?… Read More »お弁当 Obento lunchbox fun, here we go!
At our May Japanese and Chinese stamp making group online on zoom we had a relaxed session with participants working on very different and unique stamps with a range of characters. We looked at example stamp designs, such as from Blair’s teacher Wakabayashi Shujo, and… Read More »Diamonds and ovals – Tenkoku stamp making
This month why not take a few minutes to relax and doodle, we have a fun and easygoing task for you to enjoy. Simply doodle some swirly spiraling lines, at your own pace. You can explore what sizes or materials, or colours or shapes you… Read More »Creative Time – colourful swirls
At our April Kanji Club group, we celebrated Spring with Hanami 花見, the Japanese custom of enjoying the beauty of flowers, often cherry blossoms. We explored the visual meanings of the two kanji and sounds, as well as some other kanji characters and their radical… Read More »Discovering the meanings of Hanami 花見
We had a spiky and swirly theme of leaves and pattern, as more green leaves and blossoms have been appearing outside to joyfully greet us ? It was a friendly small group and a relaxing time doodling some funky leafy shapes. We had some warm… Read More »Edges, spikes and curves of leafy patterns
At our recent Zen Brush calligraphy group we brushed a lot of strokes and had fun laying out the kanji. The text we copied was the first line of Chapter seven of Lao Tzu’s mystical Tao Te Ching (道德經 The Way of Virtue Classic, expressing… Read More »Heaven and Earth in Shodo calligraphy
We had a lovely couple of hours of Shakyō Sutra copying, working on the second half of the Lotus Sutra Chapter 25 Bodhisattva of Compassion Universal Gateway (Fumonbonge). It is a fascinating, poetic and visually spectacular chapter, with many interesting characters to discover meanings from, and engage… Read More »Meditative Shakyo tracing of the universal gateway
We have a very different theme this month ? thanks to Mark, who kindly sent me a picture of his acrylic paining of a cute passenger train in the Yorkshire Dales and Ribblehead Viaduct, with lovely open space and light. Do you have a favourite… Read More »Creative Time– draw your favourite Public Transport or work vehicle!