The theme for our first Kanji Club was お正月 Oshougatsu – New Year! It was a lively and lovely group, thanks to everyone who took part and embracing the language and cultural elements of the class. We learned about Japanese and Chinese characters, finding out… Read More »Discovering Japanese and Chinese characters at 漢字 Kanji Club
Shodo returned again in the new year of the cow! This month we brushed the characters from the spacious 初心 shoshin meaning first time, heart mind, or commonly as ‘beginner’s mind’. Writing this and discovering more about the deeper meanings of the kanji characters in this… Read More »Shodo calligraphy – brushing Shoshin beginner’s mind
At our Destress doodling and drawing group we had an easygoing time with a seasonal wintry theme of snow lines and icy shapes and patterns to inspire us. Folk who joined us used whatever they had to hand, such as a pen or pencil or… Read More »Doodly relaxing with snowy and icy winter shapes
This month’s Creative Time is very laid back – please send us any photos you have taken of your wintry environment, or any poems you have written about the season. The February days are becoming longer and there is more sunshine to energise us. If… Read More »Creative Time – Reaching out to wintery open spaces
Let’s celebrate the New Year with some colour and pattern. For our first Creative Time activity of 2021 why not enjoy some fun doodling with any materials you have at hand – such as pencil ✏️, pens 🖊️, colouring pencils, or paints. 🎨 To inspire… Read More »Creative Time – Celebrating New Year with Colour and Pattern
Best wishes for the festive season! We hope you are keeping warm and well and enjoy the winter holidays. Here is our Season’s Greetings card with images of some of the many wholehearted and inspiring works by participants ? Huge thanks for all your encouragement… Read More »Season’s Greetings ✨
At Shakyō Sutra copying practice (online on zoom) we traced or copied two short verses which are often read or chanted in zen and other schools – the Kaikyōge Opening the Sutras Verse and the Fuekō Turning of Merit. They are deep and inspiring short verses, the Fuekō directly coming… Read More »Unsurpassed and deep – tracing the Kaikyōge and Fuekō
We looked closely at the styles of in 印 stamps at the Tenkoku 篆刻 seal engraving group, particularly at Japanese Master Wakabayashi. Wakabayashi Shūjō was like a grandfather to Blair who started studying shodō calligraphy with him in 2002. He kindly introduced Blair to Tenkoku seal engraving and the materials… Read More »Discovering beauty in Japanese and Chinese stamps
At our comfortable and easygoing Destress drawing group online on zoom we started with some gentle free doodles, such as flowing lines and zig zags, before making our own patterns to colour. See some of the pieces participants worked on below, very varied ✨ Blair said some… Read More »Time to doodle and relax with the changing season
Inspired by one of Chinese poet Han Shan’s Cold Mountain poems, we brushed the characters for autumn moon – shūgetsu 秋月, at our online Shodo group Zen Brush. Some of us were lucky to catch a glimpse of the waxing crescent moon in the early evening above the… Read More »Shodo of the autumn moon shining in the blue pool..