Kia ora koutou, Welcome to Episode 3! In this episode we look at movement and building. You’ll need a range of materials, which are all described in the first part of the recording. I invite you to listen to that part, then hit pause and get set up for a lovely just over an hour…
Category: What happens in class
Sensitivity of touch – Episode 2 of the Anti-Perfectionism (lockdown) Recovery Sessions
Kia ora koutou, Welcome to the second episode of the Anti-Perfectionism (lockdown) recovery sessions. This one is just under an hour, and it’s called ‘Sensitivity of touch’. These sessions have been developed in response to Covid 19 and all the stress and change we’re all going through at the moment. The hope is that it…
The Anti-Perfectionism (lockdown) Recovery Sessions #1 – ‘Arriving with Ourselves’
Kia ora koutou! Welcome, to episode 1 of the Anti-Perfectionism (lockdown) Recovery Sessions. Just like the title says, this is about relaxing, playing, and letting what wants to come out, come out, just the way it is. It is audio only, so you can listen along and do it your way. There’s no model of…
Circling and returning
Recently I’ve been feeling like I’m at the top of a growth cycle. You know, just before things move forward in new ways, before a breakthrough. So this week I designed Expressive Life Drawing class to reflect this. We made 2 minute drawings, three of them, working across and around the body,using different techniques each…
We should have an exhibition!
In the last class, we all bring our drawings in. The floor is carpeted with expressive life drawing – bold charcoal swirls, delicate personal watercolour webs. A huge document of what we have experienced and made together. I’d really like to share some of it. I have booked the gallery at Vincent’s Art Workshop for…
Permission and expression
I’ve been thinking a lot about how we give ourselves permission. The inner critic is strong, and we have ideas in our heads about what is a ‘good’ drawing. And also, what fear looks like. Slow, careful, diffiult lines, with shoulders hunched, eyes screwed up, and all the while fearing who is looking over our…
“No vulnerability, no creativity”
I love this about the conditions we need to be able to learn. Brene Brown, Daring Classrooms “No vulnerability, no creativity.” “85% of the people I’ve interviewed over the last 15 years remember a shaming experience at school that changed forever how they think of themselves as learners.” Brene Brown Over the years, I have…
Week 4 – Artist residency St Mark’s School
In Week Four we had a painting adventure. Paper on the floor, brushes stuck to long sticks, we found out how the brushes moved with the weight attached. Bouncing, swiping, swooping and twirling were some of the new ways we found of moving. We worked with our cut out colour feeling pages to create 2…
Drawing through touch
In Expressive Drawing Class we do this exercise where we draw through touch only. You close your eyes, and I give you a fragment of sculpture from the studio. They are lumpy, tangled, odd, silky. They are not things that you usually see, and so you can’t identify them. You have to feel your way…
Sian Torrington Art Classes 