The joy is in the making.
Paint-play session
I’m so excited that we get to paint together to celebrate your birthday - and celebrate you, Cyna!
Prepare to have fun. This time together is all about creating moments of joy through play.
It’s not about making a “good drawing” or a “good painting”. It’s just about using arts-based methods to help us pay attention and cultivate joy. No experience required.
Fundamentally, this is a special time in your day where you get to be more of you. I will share some processes to guide you but if you feel called to do something a different way, trust that voice and let’s explore it together.
Pep talk
You may experience some resistance (eg, fear, doubt, self-criticism) when playing with paint. It’s ok if this happens - anything that we start in life for the first time (or first few times) can be terrifying. What’s more, to express ourselves involves vulnerability.
Please keep in mind:
Engaging in art is a practice - a practice of being free and chasing your desires. This means even a little bit of practicing art has deeper impacts. The more you do it, the more embodied the practice becomes.
Accept that failure is part of the creative process. Things won’t go to plan and that’s actually a wonderful part of it. And in this case, the stakes are low: we’re just moving paint around on paper. :-)
Often we feel personally attached to what we make, which means we can lack objectivity. Whatever you make, just remember, we are not our best judge of our own work.
Creativity is key for wellbeing but to enjoy those benefits, we need to approach with intention and vulnerability. So, just be present with how you’re feeling and how you show up. Nothing more, nothing less.
I know it has been said before but… Be child-like: cultivate a state of curiosity and wonder about what unfolds, as it happens. (nb. Child-like =/= childish).
Homework
Now that we’ve got the pep talk covered, here’s your homework:
Find one object or item that you feel drawn to. No need to question why you’re drawn to it; just have it on the table with you at our session. It can be anything - a little sculpture, an object, something from your garden, etc.
Required materials
Palette - see my step-by-step guide to make a wet palette if you’d like to
5 sheets or more of paper - any kind of blank paper is fine for this activity¹. I suggest bigger than letter paper if you can, such as 11x14 - that way you have space to play - but again, whatever you have will be fine.
Brushes and any mark-making object you want to experiment with for applying paint (your fingers also count!). I left a bunch of mark-making objects in the box with you; see if any of those inspire you, or else collect your own.
At least 1 container (eg 1kg yogurt container) or large jar to hold water for rinsing your brushes/tools
Old rags or clothes (cut to smaller size), or paper towels - super handy when making a mess
Drawing pencil/s - a mix of graphite and colored pencils is great, but whatever you have is fine
Paints - go wild with the acrylic paint I left you; use your watercolor paint too
¹ If you want to get into specifics, for sketching with pencils and charcoal, paper of 75-130 GSM is fine, whereas for painting, heavier paper is better, starting at 150 GSM and above. Since we’ll be painting, you will find paper of a 150-200 GSM or higher will be better suited. Big picture though, the paper weight isn’t important for this workshop.
Set up
Have your phone camera nearby. If you want to send me a picture of your image-in-progress during our session, you can message it to me in our WhatsApp chat.
Have a flat surface (eg table), out of the wind, where you can comfortably place your materials and create. You can use masking/sticky tape to fix a covering over the surface to help protect it from paint, if you would like to - such as newspaper, a plastic table cloth (my preferred) or even magazines.
