D+P Studio News
Here is a wee bit of news from the D+P Studio!
生命 – life springing up with shodo calligraphy
6 December 2019
At the Zen Heart Brush in November, we practiced ‘生命 seimei – life’ in the cosy Kagyu Samye Dzong, Tibetan Buddhist centre. Winter has arrived and energy is waning in Glasgow just now but we vigorously enjoyed writing ‘life’!
We talked about life, the elements, universal symbols such as 三角 – triangle, 四角 – square, 丸 – circle, and we made various marks and strokes and worked on kaisho, tensho and gyosho styles.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Shodo calligraphy
Free flowing abstract fun!
6 December 2019
Last night at Clydebank art group we had a free flowing fun evening of painting with pattern and colours to brighten up our wintery day! Thanks to all the participants who came along to the group this year. The next session at the fabulously friendly and comfy Centre 81 is on the 22nd of January 🤗
Working together on funky pieces with watercolours and pens at Clydebank art group. Thanks to Centre 81, West Dunbartonshire Council and Glasgow Airport Flightpath Fund for all their support with this creative group for adults.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Expansive night skys and celestial heads over the city
4 December 2019
Last time we enjoyed a night sky 🌌 theme with oil pastels and coloured paper, bringing in cityscape and celestial heads.
More of our creative adventures last week at Clydebank art group 🌜🌝🌞🤗
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Wonderful star filled spacious dark nights
27 November 2019
Last time we enjoyed a night sky 🌌 theme with oil pastels and coloured paper.
Words and doodles from Clydebank art group inspired by the mystery of the night sky and space – the waxing and waning of the 🌒 , tides, stars, darkness, shadows..
Embracing the wonderful star filled spacious dark nights with pencils, oil pastels and pens at Clydebank art group 🌛✨🌠🔭
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Exploring autumn with collage
13 November 2019
Last time we enjoyed an autumnal 🍁 theme with collage cutting and sticking, in our group there is always plenty of freedom also to go your own creative way if you want to, and lots of help and encouragement when you need it too 🤗 we help you feel settled and enjoy a sense of wellbeing. Thanks to Centre81 Steering Group for co-organising this group.
Exploring autumn with collage cutting and sticking, connecting to nature with our senses
More fabulous artworks and poetic inspiration from last week at Clydebank art group, the participants experimented with different combinations of materials to create atmosphere and vibrancy 🍁🧡😁
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Leafy textures and colourful doodles with inks
6 November 2019
The group is welcoming and free of charge, come along and join us tonight at the friendly @Centre81 at 6.30 to 8pm. Destress, find inspiration, enjoy trying out our drawing materials 😄
Last time we enjoyed an autumnal 🍁 theme, in our group there is always plenty of freedom also to go your own creative way if you want to, and lots of help and encouragement when you need it too 🤗 we help you feel settled and enjoy a sense of wellbeing. Thanks to Centre81 Steering Group for co-organising this group.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Feeling the autumn colours in our shodo calligraphy group…
1 November 2019
In October at our Zen Heart Brush group, we hamonized with the season and decided to write ‘koyo, 紅葉’ autumn colours.
To help us get in the mood and connect with the natural feeling, there were some red and golden leaves on the table to catch the essence of the season. The meaning of the kanji ‘紅葉’ is crimson leaves, we hope everyone enjoyed the autumnal season in the room!
The meaning of the kanji ‘紅葉’ is crimson leaves, we hope everyone enjoyed the autumnal season in the room! We looked at the origins of each kanji character and how the styles changed over the centuries, which guided our shodo practice, and helped us enjoy the different possibilities.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Shodo calligraphy
Looking, sensing, watching in the Botanic Gardens…
1 November 2019
This time in the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow, our drawing group tucked ourselves into the deep ferny vegetation of Kibble Palace to draw the frenzy of intertwining plants.
We had a quirky session of drawing textures and shapes, then moved onto looking at the wider areas of the palace.
One of our group was inspired by reflections, sight and the act of watching itself.
We played with oil pastels and lead graphite sticks to try out different textures.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Drawing Groups
Japanese shodo calligraphy at the beautiful autumnal Cowden Japanese Garden
1 November 2019
We had a lovely day at the Cowden Japanese Garden with enthusiastic people taking part, it was a colourful autumn day and tranquil atmosphere, a perfect setting to enjoy a workshop of Japanese shodo calligraphy.
After a short talk about shodo we slowly strolled outside, meditatively walking in the garden to admire different features in the garden and interact with our senses, especially we paid attention to ‘karesansui, 枯山水’ dry landscape which was related to our theme that day!
Then we went back to the room, we started to try out the ‘enso, 円相’ circle to loosen up. Then we moved onto ‘sui, 水’ and ‘san, 山’ which can be combined as ‘sansui, 山水’ mountains and water. We had demonstrations and wrote the characters in very varied styles of calligraphy which the participants enjoyed!
During the break we had delicious scones and empire biscuits with hot drinks 😉
The garden is a delightful and peaceful place to visit, (it reminds Blair of Kenrokuen garden in Kanazawa) and the setting in the foothills of the Ochills near Dollar is inspiring 🙂
Category: Art Groups Tags: Shodo calligraphy
Halloween Masks and Autumn Crowns
30 October 2019
A simple fun way to make a Halloween mask or Autumnal crown is to use a long strip of thick paper sized to fit around the wearer’s head, and decorate and trim this to your fanciful and fantastical desire!
You can enjoy experimenting with different styles of masks, from superhero to elegant to monstrous, to animal or tribal..
Useful materials:
Scissors,
double sided tape, pencil, paint pens such as posca, coloured paper
such as heavy sugar paper, oil pastels or crayons, inks using a brush,
or artbrushes as we used, leaves – carefully choose the colours and
shapes of leaves.
We found inspiration and tips from the website Handmade Charlotte.
Category: Art Tags: Creative preparation, Young people's art