The retreat takes place in the picturesque village of Plympton St Maurice, near Plymouth, in South Devon. Outdoor activities are held in public green spaces; lunch is served in the local Guildhall. Most of the event is outdoors but can be moved to our indoor venue in the case of rain.
Includes coffees, teas and lunch of crusty bread, homemade cakes and a selection of cheeses, houmous, olives and fruit.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Zen doodling is a kind of meditative drawing practice which can be used to easily calm your mind. Zen doodles are just repeating patterns; no artistic talent is required.
Zen doodling combines meditation and art. Learn to practice relaxation exercises and art for self-care. The session includes five minutes of guided mindfulness, a simple art project that can be done at home just with felt tip pens, and the opportunity to chat while we are making the zen doodles and to relax.
In this course you will create zen doodles while learning about the philosophy and benefits of zen doodling:
Improves mental health
Improves social connection
Teaches new skills (relaxation exercises and art for self- care).
We start with a ‘check in’ to see how everyone is feeling. There is no obligation to speak if you don’t want to. We end the group with a ‘check out’ to share how everyone is feeling after making zen doodles.
This online, three week course will start on Thursday 4th March, then the 11th and 18th March.
