Month: April 2021

Royal William Yard Group Returns!

Want to learn to manage stress in a creative way?

Want to meet new people without feeling awkward?

Want to relax your busy mind, without the practice and discipline needed for meditation?

You just found the easy answer!

Our weekly art group at 1pm on Friday afternoons returns to Ocean Studios, Royal William Yard, next Friday 7th May. It offers a safe, easy-going space to have coffee, try guided mindfulness and do some art, just for fun. There is absolutely no talent required, so if you haven’t done anything creative since school that’s fine.

  • Ocean Studios
    Event Space Ocean Studios

Booking

Booking is essential due to restricted numbers during the pandemic. Message us to confirm your place. We have some limited funding to cover the cost of your session. You can also book here.

If you arrive around 12.45pm you can grab a coffee at the Ocean Studios Cafe, then head upstairs to the Event Space on the right, where you will find Mindful Art Club. You will need to wear a mask to enter the café, but once you are seated at our (socially distanced) art table you can remove your mask for the duration of the group.

How to find us

Ocean Studios, The Factory Cooperage, Royal William Yard, Plymouth PL1 3RP. 

Plymouth city centre is 20-minute walk or a 12-minute cycle away. Find us at The Factory Cooperage, opposite Las Iguanas with the red telephone box. 

Drive  

From Plymouth City Centre take A374 to Durnford Street in Stonehouse. From Cornwall take the Tamar Bridge, A38, A3064, B3396 and A374, continue onto Durnford St until you reach the yard. There are plenty of Pay and Display car parking spaces at Royal William Yard. 

Bus  

The number 34 bus travels from the city centre and stops at the Royal William Yard roundabout. It leaves from Royal Parade stop A2. 12.20pm. The bus stop is near the Guildhall car park, just down from St Andrews Church.

Boat  

The ferry runs every hour from the Barbican to Royal William Yard, or you can travel from Cornwall on the Cremyll Ferry to Stonehouse. 

Read more details about accessibility at Ocean Studios.

Feeling unsure? Send us a message and we can chat. We’d love to see you there.

The Real Reason Our Logo is an Egg

Sometimes, anxiety can make it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. You wake up with a stomach ache, and an overwhelming feeling of dread. Everything just feels “too much.”

It was on a day like this, when I was suffering with (what I now know) was an anxiety disorder, that I decided to try to lift my mood by repeating the mantra, “I am enough” to myself. I was also trying something new. I had decided to start drawing little cartoons to illustrate my mental health struggles. Because I had noticed that when I was drawing, absorbed in creativity, that was the only time that my head wasn’t busy with anxious overthinking. Creativity calmed my mind.

“I am enough.”

If you say it fast enough it sounds like “I am an oeuf.” Oeuf is French for egg. I grabbed a chalk board we have in the kitchen and spontaneously drew a serene-looking egg who believed that he was enough. Underneath him I wrote,

“I am an oeuf.”

It made me smile. So I got into drawing this little egg character, in various different situations.

And after a lot more doodling, colouring, meditating, chats with friends, counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy, I eventually overcame that pesky anxiety.

A few years later, Emma and I decided to start our mindful art business, and when we needed a logo it seemed appropriate to me to use the egg. Because I am an oeuf.

You are enough.

We are enough.

So shine like an egg.

And if you want to try using mindfulness and creativity to calm your busy mind today, grab yourself a bundle of free colouring pages and doodling printables by entering your email here.

Yes please, send me free stuff!

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New Online Course Starts June

We are delighted to be working with various funding partners to deliver online courses for anyone who would like to learn to practice relaxation exercises and art for self-care. A typical Zoom session includes five minutes of guided mindfulness, five minutes of mindful drawing, a simple art project, and the opportunity to chat and relax. Hosted by Peggy Melmoth and Emma Sprawson.

“I wanted to thank you both again lovely ladies, for giving us the opportunity, of being together, in such a nice group through the Devon Recovery Learning Community. For me, not being creative, it allowed me to enjoy the doodling with you. As I said today in the group, thank you for brightening my afternoon, with an hour of giggles. So good to laugh with you Emma, thank you.”

Linda, online course participant

Our next online course starts on 7th June 2021 and is funded and hosted by Devon Mind. Book here.

These courses are very popular so please book in advance.

Women’s Art Group in Plymouth

Our mindful art courses at The Sunflower Women’s Centre are six weeks long, and free of charge to the participants, thanks to funding from The Sunflower Women’s Centre, and funding from Comic Relief.  Each weekly session is an hour and a half long.

Phone The Sunflower Women’s Centre to get on the waiting list. Tel: 01752 977614 (Leave a message).

What to bring: Your own felt tip pens, hand sanitiser if you wish. Coffee and tea is provided.

The Sunflower Women’s Centre, The Gables, 29 Sutherland Road, Plymouth, PL4 6BW.

Cost: Free to women registered with The Sunflower Women’s Centre.

How to Draw Paisley

We hosted a lovely mindful art session for Rhizome Artists’ Collective recently, drawing paisley Anyone can join us on Zoom on Tuesdays by booking here.

How to Draw Paisley

Draw a long, continuous curved line. Curve your line so it connects with the beginning of your drawing to draw a paisley shape. Begin to decorate your paisley. Start with a raindrop shape in the big part and a circle in the small part. Add more patterns and shapes such as flower petals. Add more detail like lines, stripes, waves, flowers or whatever you can think of. Colour it in.

How to draw paisley, step by step.

For more printable mindful art activities join our mailing list.