At our De-stress drawing group we had an early autumn theme enjoying the wonder of tree fruits in this season of abundance – exploring their textures, shapes and colours – such as nuts, berries, seeds and pods 🫐🌰 Together we found autumnal inspiration… Read More »Drawing the autumn season – fruits and berries
We had a sensory theme in September, 感じる Kanjiru (to experience, to sense), and we wrote and pronounced the characters for each of the Five Senses, as well as certain katakana and hiragana 👁️👂👃👅✋ We looked at related kanji and commonly used vocabulary, there are… Read More »Learning Kanji Japanese and Chinese through the Senses
It has been a really busy creative summer for us here in Glasgow with our main project being recently completed, a colourful community mural transforming the wide outer wall of The Maryhill Hub community centre, please see the gallery of photos below. Huge thanks to… Read More »Maryhill Hub Mural Painting Project
At Zen Brush, our online Shodō calligraphy group (monthly on zoom) we brushed the four kanji characters in the heartful zen phrase Anjin-ryumyo 安心立命 (literally ease/peace ; heart-mind ; stand; fate). This can be translated in various ways such as peace and enlightenment, or letting… Read More »Midsummer Zen Shodo Calligraphy
At our colourful June De-stress drawing group we had a relaxing and summery theme of rockpools, their visual delights and endless pleasure, finding inspiration in shells and seaweed and creatures at the coast 🦀🌊 It was a friendly group with a chilled atmosphere before the… Read More »Relaxing mindfully drawing summer rockpools
At Kanji Club class we explored a nature and art theme in June, with the phrase 花鳥風月 Kachōfūgetsu (literally flower-bird-wind-moon) about natural beauty and inspiring Japanese aesthetics 💮🐦🌬🌙 Together we looked at nature and arts related kanji and commonly used vocabulary and the fascinating kanji… Read More »Nature and arts in Chinese and Japanese writing
At our online Shodō calligraphy group (monthly on zoom) we brushed the elemental zen word Unsui 雲水, literally meaning clouds and water, and more specifically meaning novice zen monks and nuns (it is shortened from going clouds-flowing waters), coming from a Chinese poem ‘to drift… Read More »Swirling inky clouds and water in Shodō calligraphy
In May we had an inspiring theme of clouds and cloudscapes, embracing their ever changing sense of impermanence and the unknown, enjoying doodling their lively vitality, textures and colour 🌤 It was a friendly and cosy group on zoom, and after Blair did some relaxing… Read More »De-stress drawing spacious Cloudscapes
At our Kanji Club in May we were whisked away across Japan by super fast Shinkansen trains and up through the valleys in mountain traversing carriages. It is amazing what we could discover about Kanji and also Japanese culture from exploring characters and words related… Read More »Discovering Kanji by Train Travel!
At our zoom Shodō calligraphy in March, we brushed the beautiful zen phrase Ekō -henshō 回向返照, meaning ‘turning the light inward and illuminating the self’, or ‘turning facing, answering with light’. Blair talked about the meanings of the phrase and use in Master Dogen’s meditation… Read More »Brushing Zen Calligraphy: Turning the Light Inward