Watercolour Wellbeing: Move, Breathe & Create - Lavender (Skillshare)

In this workshop we will explore:
• Watercolours and alternative art tools, the joy of using a humble cocktail stick!
• Watercolour ‘wet on wet’ technique
• The benefits of Lavender
• Mindfulness
• Moving your body, understanding how warming up before you paint can be beneficial to your
artwork (gentle movement)
• Meditation that encourages us to connect to our creativity and quieten our 'inner critic'
• Breathing techniques that will help you relax and declutter your mind
• Letting go of perfection and trusting the process
• Our intentions, setting out to create rather then focusing on the end result
• Making mistakes, allowing for those ‘beautiful oops’ moments to come through
This workshop is for you if you:
• Think your art would benefit from some guidance
• Are in search of fresh inspiration and finding more flow
• Would like to learn/explore how to use watercolours
• Believe there isn't a creative bone in your body, I believe there is!
• Would like to let go of thoughts of self judgment
• Want to create time to nourish your physical and mental wellbeing
All levels of creative and yoga experience are welcome. Whether you are a practicing artist seeking fresh inspiration and flow or are curious to tap into the abundance of creativity that already resides within you.
The movement in the tutorial is gentle, it is your responsibility to opt out at any point. Give yourself permission to make adjustments to suit your body. A yoga mat is optional, all movement can be taken seated on a chair, ensure you have space to more your arms freely. Please do not take part in any exercise you deem unsuitable during the practice.
In this tutorial you will create a Lavender inspired piece(s) of art. Lavender is well known for its self soothing benefits, and is a wonderful plant for us to enjoy. You can choose to take part in a gentle yoga inspired warm up that encourages flow into your body. This fluid movement and connection to our breath will prepare you for your wonderful watercolour painting. We will celebrate the process of creativity throughout the session, embracing our mistakes and making way for serendipity to flow into our paintings.
The tutorial has been created in bitesize nuggets of inspiration.
Part 1: A warm friendly welcome from me and further details on our art materials.
You will need:
Watercolour paper
Watercolour paints
Water jars
Pencil
Paint brushes
Cocktail stick
Palette (optional)
Lavender, dried or essential oil (optional)
Yoga mat (optional, all light movement can be taken sitting in a chair)
Part 2: We settle our breath, settle our minds and get comfortable. Breathing well with awareness is proven to have many benefits to our wellbeing. We invite serenity into our bodies by gently deepening out breath, how we breath can influence our thoughts and feelings, our breath can help soothe us. Let's quieten any thoughts of our inner critics! we encourage this feeling of calm and fluidity to shine through in our painting.
Part 3:Mindful movement to help warm up our bodies and invite flow into our arms, wrists and out onto our canvas. If my joints are stiff I find this has an effect on how I paint, we link gentle postures to our breath in a movement meditation. Inhaling altogether and letting go of anything that wont serve us in our creative process with a sigh ahhhhhh.
Part 4: Spending time observing our inspirational Lavender and loosely planning out our compositions. We play with the 'wet on wet' watercolour technique and have fun with the mark making possibilities of a humble cocktail stick. A watercolour meditation practice, handing control over to our watercolours and enjoying watching the paints run to their own natural rhythm.
Part 5: I love to paint Lavender, enjoy a gallery of other artworks and possible compositions.
Part 6: A thank you from me. Wherever you are with your art, enjoy your journey!
I would love to see your art, please post your Lavender inspired creativity in the gallery.