D+P Studio News
Here is a wee bit of news from the D+P Studio!
Funky shell and sea patterns
25 June 2019
Inspired by the sea shore and sea creatures, we sketched and doodled at our own pace at Clydebank art group (Centre81) using pens and pencils. This Wednesday we will use oil pastels and collage to explore the textures of the sea. 🏝 Please come along to enjoy some relaxed creative time 😉
Kindly supported by West Dunbartonshire Council and Flightpath
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Flowing patterns of birds, grasses and flowers
18 June 2019
Last time at Clydebank art group (Centre81) we had some de-stress doodling time and we drew some patterns with birds, flowers and grasses 🐦🌿🌺
At the next group we will have a fresh sea theme! 🏝
You are very welcome to come along to join us 🙂
Kindly supported by West Dunbartonshire Council and Flightpath
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Funky abstraction and expansive landscapes
7 June 2019
Well done to The Maryhill HUB team for organising their vibrant community art exhibition. Here are some images from the North United Communities artworks display…🙂⛺️🏔🌇🖌🎨🖼
Photos courtesy of The Maryhill HUB
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, NUC, Young people's art
Colour and movement – painting with watercolours
5 June 2019
Last week at Clydebank art group (Centre81) we had fun with watercolours inspired by nature, looking at the varied colour combinations and shapes in leaves and flowers.
Our initial doodles helped us to free up and get our creativity going!
Kindly supported by West Dunbartonshire Council and Flightpath
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Leafy breezy doodles in the community garden
27 May 2019
At the Clydebank art group, we took advantage of the sunny weather to do some wee sketches and doodles outside in the leafy green Centre81 community garden, and we enjoyed other drawings inside as well using pens and coloured pencils🙂🌞🌿🌺
It was lovely and peaceful in the garden with the sound of the breeze through the trees🌳
Kindly supported by West Dunbartonshire Council and Flightpath
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Springy summery leaves and rippling water at Clydebank art group 🌿🌞🌸
21 May 2019
Inspired by the canal area next to the Centre81, the leaves and flowers and shoots at the banks of the gently moving waters, we enjoyed some easygoing doodling and sketching with pens, pencils and coloured pencils. Relaxing and fun 😄
Kindly supported by West Dunbartonshire Council and Flightpath
Category: Art Groups Tags: Clydebank Art Group, Community Groups
Deeply, slowly and softly – Shakyo tracing at KSD
8 May 2019
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 602 – 664 which was popularised in the Saiyuuki / Monkey Magic series, itself based on the fictionalised Chinese novel Journey to the West) and his experience of participating in Shakyo practice in Soto shu and Hosso shu temples in Japan taught by monks and calligraphy masters, connecting with wider zen practice.
We then had a look at the structure and some of the many meanings in the sutra, the shortened essence or heart of the massively longer epic Dai Hannya (as the monks call it) or Vast Perfection of Wisdom Sutra.
Then we approached this session like a period of meditation, working peacefully and being absorbed into the very process of tracing each character of the chosen Heart Sutra. This is a very tranquil activity best done slowly.
In many ways it is also very different from Shodo calligraphy (which we explored in the other groups in this series), such as we worked on many small characters in vertical rows with small kofude brushes, grinding our own ink (listening to the sound as we did so and noticing the speed of the grinding) and connecting to the sutra rather than working with large brushes and kanji in the much more dynamic process of Shodo.
This type of Shakyo group working with the these traditional materials and methods and looking deeply at the ideas in the sutra is new to Scotland and the UK, and we were delighted to host this and see the participants engage wholeheartedly, enjoy it and want to practice it further. Thanks again to the GB Sasakawa Foundation for their support for this project.
Kindly supported by The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Meditation, Sasakawa Foundation, Shakyo, Shodo calligraphy
Meditative calm and connecting to spaciousness and light
1 May 2019
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 Shodo and kanji characters, and Blair’s experience in Japan and in particular with calligraphy and meditation. We looked at the traditional materials, from bunchin paper weight to shitajiki felt mat to suzuri inkwells and fude brushes, pausing reflectively to notice and feel the textures such as of the hanshi paper.
In the peaceful atmosphere of the garden room (where groups such as the Glasgow Zen Group or Tibetan Buddhist group meditate) we worked on several kanji and built up to working on Koumyou 光明 – radiant light or luminous brightness – in the kaisho style and tensho styles.
We also had time to try some of the strokes practice, and some participants also experimented with using the brushes to write fluidly in English alongside the kanji characters.
Kindly supported by The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Sasakawa Foundation, Shodo calligraphy
Enso zen circles and old bone language at Maryhill Art Group
30 April 2019
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 challenge and variety of making an enso circle in a single mark – reflecting their experience and being in that moment, and in some ways a meditation in itself. Time to breathe, relax and connect helped to settle into the calligraphy, but folk were very quick to get going and try out the kanji characters.
As we have worked a lot with natural materials in this group previously it was ideal to try out characters such as moku 木 – wood, and kumo 雲 – cloud.
The younger participants engaged very readily to the older tensho, kinbun and kokotsubun styles – back to the shell and bone language which evolved into kanji. We considered the connections to the old Scottish Pictish and Viking Norse visual languages and found these to be closer than we would have thought.
Kindly supported by The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation
Category: Art Groups Tags: Community Groups, Maryhill Art Group, Sasakawa Foundation, Shodo calligraphy
The way of sho
24 April 2019
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!
道 Dou/ michi – meaning way, road, teachings such as Buddha way – visually varies a lot from tensho to kaisho styles, especially the foot moving forward on the left side (hen radical), itself meaning walk or advance. We looked briefly at the roots of meaning of this Chinese character which are ancient and shamanic.
Category: Art Groups Tags: Shodo calligraphy