Wild Art Workshop

I'm trying out mandala dot painting at the workshop this week.

Just me, learning the rhythm of it — dot by dot.

I often leave these little practice pieces lying around the studio.
Not as projects anyone has to do…

More like creative breadcrumbs.

Something that might catch someone’s eye, spark curiosity, start a conversation.

Around here, ideas are offerings, not demands.

(And if a few creative experiments stay out on the table for a while… let’s just say that suits my ADHD approach to tidying perfectly 😉)

Today in the workshop: bead plants catching the spring light ✨

Little bursts of colour growing from simple wires and beads.
No soil, no watering — just creativity.

Projects like this are perfect for our sessions.
Hands quietly making…
minds wandering…
good conversations unfolding as we work.

Simple, beautiful, and a little bit magical.

There is just SO MUCH PAINTING TO DO.

Colour exploding.
Lines colliding.
Texture building.
Shapes appearing out of nowhere.

The canvases and the young people were absolutely buzzing today. This is fun!

Wild Art Workshop has become a meeting place between art, teaching, and gentle therapeutic holding.

Not one or the other — but a weaving together of all three.

Here, creativity isn’t separate from being seen.
Ideas are followed together, feelings are allowed space, and the process matters just as much as the outcome.

It feels special to hold a space where understanding comes first, and art grows from there.

Warrior Cats fans… where are you? 🐾 (or just cat fans 😀)

We LOVE using favourite books, characters and interests as starting points for creativity. Why wouldn’t we follow the threads of what lights someone up? That’s where the best ideas live.

One of my favourite parts of this work is watching an idea grow — then spending the days afterwards thinking, planning and collecting inspiration to bring it into the next session.

That happy in-between space of thinking and imagining is such a gift of running workshop sessions, and I’m always grateful for it.

Inspiration is everywhere… sometimes it’s just waiting to be noticed.

A simple stem of leaves (perfectly ordinary on a walk to the workshop) caught someone’s eye — and suddenly a painting was born.

We printed it, gelli-plated it, painted the negative space around it, layered colours… and at one point had six paintings on the go at once to avoid the boredom of waiting for things to dry (naturally that might have been me rather than the young person 😄).

Layer by layer, ordinary becomes extraordinary.

This is why I love process-based art — following curiosity instead of a fixed outcome.

Sometimes a young person says,
“I want to make a cat.”

And what appears… is possibly a dog.
Or a fox.
Or a brand new species nobody has discovered yet. We love that.

At Wild Art Workshop, the goal isn’t perfection — it’s taking an idea and finding a way to bring it to life. Wire for strength, scrunched paper and tape for shape… and suddenly a creature exists that didn’t before.

Creative confidence grows when there’s space to experiment, adapt, and laugh when things take their own direction. That’s where the magic lives.

If you know a young person who would love building their own slightly-mysterious animal friend, we’ve got a Thursday morning session available after half term 🐾

Come make something wonderfully, gloriously yours.

This is what a brilliant afternoon looked like in the workshop 💛

Side by side, quietly making.
Layer by layer.
Pinecone by pinecone.
Clay, place, press… repeat.

The kind of repetitive, gentle crafting that slows your breathing without you even noticing. Hands busy, minds settling, the world getting a little softer around the edges.

And then… the tiny lights go on ✨
That warm little glow inside each teeny house felt like a reminder of something important — calm doesn’t have to be big or dramatic. Sometimes it’s just small, steady moments of making, together.

Honestly, it had full-on 80s Ready Brek advert energy…

Cosy. Quiet. Glowing from the inside out.

Lately I’ve been making these little willow stars most days.

Collecting the willow (or sending my husband out, as he’s taller and I’ve already used up the lower branches 😉), wrapping them in soft layers of tissue paper, then stitching and embellishing slowly — it’s become a small nervous-system reset in the middle of busy days.

Some of these are heading out into the world as tiny tokens of gratitude 💛 A little handmade reminder that someone is appreciated.

Gentle making. Gentle giving. Win-win, really 😀

Back after a little quiet spell and WOW… things are very much alive over here.

The table is a glorious mess, ideas are flying, imaginations are switched on, and sessions are filling up faster than I can put the lids back on the glue sticks.

This beautiful chaos is exactly what happens when young people are given space, time, and the freedom to create in their own way.

Feeling very proud of this little wild, wonderful workshop right now 😃

Painted Autumn Leaves in the Workshop Today

We collected our leaves on the way in, pockets full of frosty autumn colours.
They dried out a little while we played a very lively game of Go Fish (I did not win… again 😅).

Then we settled in with brushes and bright colours, watching the paint slowly sink into the tiny veins of each leaf. There’s something so grounding about that moment — quiet, gentle, almost hypnotic.

Card games to start and finish, laughter in between, and a calm, steady rhythm to the whole session. A cosy kind of creative.