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D+P Studio News

Deeply, slowly and softly - Shakyo tracing at KSD

Deeply, slowly and softly – Shakyo tracing at KSD

The last of our series of free events related to Japanese calligraphy and meditative practice was Shakyo copying – tracing a sutra.We started with a talk where Blair discussed the history of Shakyo (and of course including the famous story of Genjo / Xuanzang c… Read More »Deeply, slowly and softly – Shakyo tracing at KSD

Meditative calm and connecting to spaciousness and light

Meditative calm and connecting to spaciousness and light

At Kagyu Samye Dzong Tibetan building we had a large turnout for this free Shodo calligraphy group (apologies to those we couldn’t accommodate) and enjoyed a gentle introduction to the way of Sho. Before working on the kanji characters, we talked about the history of… Read More »Meditative calm and connecting to spaciousness and light

Enso zen circles and old bone language at Maryhill Art Group

Enso zen circles and old bone language at Maryhill Art Group

In this session generously supported by the GB Sasakawa Foundation, our group of adults with children were able to try out Japanese calligraphy for the first time and find out about some of the history and culture behind the beautiful characters. The participants enjoyed the… Read More »Enso zen circles and old bone language at Maryhill Art Group

The way of sho

The way of sho

At Zen Heart Brush this time we worked with the characters for Shodo – the way of writing. 書 Sho/ kaku can mean to write, to draw or to paint so has a fairly broad range of interpretation. Lots of horizontal strokes in this character!… Read More »The way of sho

Kokyou - the eternal mirror

Kokyou – the eternal mirror

We first had some fun loosening up with some markmaking before working on the kanji character 古 ko / furui for old or ancient. Exploring the oldest bone carving style of character was really fun in addition to the tensho and kaisho styles. 鏡 Kyou/… Read More »Kokyou – the eternal mirror

Mysterious shapes and energy of trees

Mysterious shapes and energy of trees

Continuing from last week’s theme of spring growth we probed the branchy twisting shapes within trees, more easily seen before all the leaves come out. Thinking about the graceful shapes and sense of wisdom that trees convey, we were free to make more artworks and… Read More »Mysterious shapes and energy of trees

Spring growth and life emerging

Spring growth and life emerging

The buds of spring and shoots, and young green leaves inspired us over two nights at Maryhill Art Group. We used our senses to look closely at the buds, daffodils and other spring shoots and flowers we had brought in, also smelling the scents. After… Read More »Spring growth and life emerging

Expansive vistas, soaring gannets, flying marks

Expansive vistas, soaring gannets, flying marks

Freedom in open spaces and big marks! Continuing from last session’s rocky theme of rocks under the earth in Glasgow, we took this into wider dimensions with more spacious scenes of sea, islands, birds. This was influenced also by the rock and raked gravel dry… Read More »Expansive vistas, soaring gannets, flying marks

Lava rising from patterns of earth and rock

Lava rising from patterns of earth and rock

Inspired by the rocks under our feet in Glasgow, from the carboniferous to the metamorphic hundreds of millions of years ago. We drew and doodled from our rock collection as well as from our imagination, thinking about lava rising up through the sea to create… Read More »Lava rising from patterns of earth and rock