Author: Peggy Melmoth

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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.

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The Real Reason Our Logo is an Egg

I am an oeuf

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.

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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.

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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.

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One Year Since First Lockdown

It’s now one year since the first coronavirus lockdown. This Facebook Live was our first attempt at offering our creative mental health sessions online. We hadn’t yet learned to use Zoom! Since then we have continued to support mental health and combat social isolation with socially distant groups, outdoor retreats and online sessions. There is a rich archive of 45 videos on our Facebook page if you want to try mindful art at home, for free, at any time. We offer creativity and company to anyone struggling in the Plymouth area, in Devon, in these difficult times.

In this video Peggy reads out live comments from people reacting to their very first day in UK lockdown, and viewers share different experiences of their first socially distanced Mothers Day.

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How to Share With Just Friends

How to share with just friends.

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Two Art Groups to Start Next Week

The Clipper

As lockdown begins to ease we are able to start two new support groups next week, bearing in mind the ongoing restrictions.

Sunflower Women’s Centre

On Monday afternoons we are starting a small, socially distanced group for four women at a time, thanks to new funding from Comic Relief. These will be at The Sunflower Women’s Centre, 29 Sutherland Road, Plymouth PL4 6BW. To secure your free place on a six week mindful art course call The Sunflower Centre on 01752 977614 and leave a voicemail, asking to be put on the waiting list for Mindful Art Club.

The Clipper, Union Street

The Clipper is Omnium Radio’s Community Hub, at 65 Union Street, Plymouth PL1 3LU.

We will be holding weekly sessions at The Clipper from 9.30am to 11.00am every Friday thanks to Community Sparks Funding from Stronger North Stonehouse. These start on Friday 19th March and you can come to one session at a time, rather than committing to a six week course.

We will be holding the first couple of sessions as non-booked sessions, however bear in mind under current COVID rules we can only have 15 participants in the support session. We will adjust any rules along with COVID restrictions changes. You must bring your own food and drink, and face mask during current guidelines. Once guidelines are eased, The Clipper cafe will be open for refreshments.

Listen to Emma’s interview on Omnium Radio to find out more about this new group.

We also continue to offer Zoom on Tuesdays funded by your individual donations.

Mindful Art Club:

  • Improves mental health
  • Improves social connection
  • Teaches new skills: mindfulness and art for self care

To find out about when our next online courses and real life groups are launching join our mailing list now. As a thank you for joining, we’ll instantly send you a mindful colouring bundle with meditative art activities inside, to try at home.

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Good News if You Don’t Like Support Groups

Are you wary of support groups?

Do you hate people looking at you?

Dislike feeling pressured to speak?

We get it.

Listen now: Trace Jared-Davis and Emma Sprawson talk about why Mindful Art Club is different, and why social connections are now more important than ever.  You will also learn why you don’t need to be Van Gogh to join in with this art club.

This interview was first broadcast on Omnium Radio, Plymouths Community Radio on o5th March 2021. The full interview is below.

The new group launches Friday 19th March 2021.

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How We Started Offering Immediate Mental Health Support, Without Any Waiting Lists

When Emma and Peggy suddenly lost the jobs they loved, they started a business on a shoestring, to offer mindful art groups, support mental health and tackle social isolation in the Plymouth area.

Mental health services were already overstretched and the pandemic has made that even worse. Mindful Art Club gives people a way to access help and support immediately, without a waiting list, and without finances being a barrier to access.

Emma and I are helping to create a world where peer support, mindfulness, creative activities, and social connection is more easily available in local communities. 

Peggy Melmoth

Watch Now:

If you’ve ever felt stressed, anxious or depressed, we have a free downloadable mindful colouring bundle with zen doodling exercises for you. Just enter your email now to receive our colouring bundle today, and we will write to you monthly to let you know about our latest free and low-cost events in the Plymouth area.

Yes please, send me free stuff!

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Free Printable Mandala Template

Drawing a mandala doesn’t have to be complicated. Mindful art means drawing without self-judgement. Get in the flow and enjoy being in the moment without putting any expectations onto yourself.

Use our free printable mandala template as a guide. Just place some plain paper over the top and trace the segmented circle image. Then fill in the separate parts with zen doodles, patterns, positive affirmations, things you are good at, or things that you are grateful for. Check out some examples done by people who come to our mindful art groups. The important thing is to have fun with it.

You may also like this short video of Peggy and Emma: How to Draw a Mandala.

Feeling isolated? Stick on an hour long video recording of one of our classes in the background, and enjoy some coffee, creativity and company. (You will need to be on Facebook to see these videos.)

Can’t be bothered to draw your own mandala? We get that! Colour in a ready-made mandala instead, included in our free mindful colouring bundle.

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