Current offerings from The Drawing Board

These delicious groups are currently running in Totnes! Email or message me to find out more or reserve a place.

MONDAYS      1.30-3pm

Studio One, The Mansion, Totnes  (all abilities)

£45 for five sessions

Four or Five-week blocks, next one beginning 16th March (Booking advised).

These sessions are designed to blend formal drawing techniques with experimentation and exploration of your own mark and style. The emphasis is on gaining confidence and dissolving inhibition in order to understand your own process and develop that into a comfortable practice. We look at the wider benefits of drawing and the philosophy of how drawing helps us think, move, feel, function and be.

THURSDAYS 10-12am Pop-up ‘Drawing Surgery’

The People's Cafe, The Mansion, Totnes (all abilities)

This is a regular weekly informal meet-up to get some guidance and input for your drawing whilst enjoying a cuppa and having a sketch with fellow drawers. Bring along something to draw with and maybe a bit of coin for a cake!

It's free or pay what you feel/contribution

FRIDAYS 12-2pm (drawing-drop-in) (all abilities)

Birdwood House, Totnes

£8 per session

These are 2 hours of experimental mark-making.   Our emphasis will be on the process and the experience of drawing, freeing up the hand, the eye and the mind to immerse in our creative expression and play with materials. 

Life drawing at The Angel Gallery, Totnes

7th, 14th and 21st April - 7.30-9.30pm £35 for all three sessions

(Booking recommended)

Guided sessions, tutoring if needed, bring materials and sketchbook with hardback as there are no easels. 

One to one sessions also available (either via Zoom or face to face)

Whether you are an artist estranged from your practice looking for ways back, a terrified beginner who needs to get some practice before joining a group or you would like some support with a portfolio, project or keeping your drawing habits alive give me a shout.  

The Drawing Board

There are currently three sessions per week running in Totnes now. Monday afternoons, Thursday Mornings and Friday afternoons. There will also be a life drawing group on Tuesday evenings in April.

Under the banner of The Drawing Board I'm slowly trying to grow

a community drawing centre (albeit one that moves from place to

place!)  It's always been a dream to have a place that offers access to

drawing for all different needs and creeds. I'm testing the Friday afternoon ground with a group that

hopefully will expand but for now

I just wanted it to be space for safe and non-judgemental experimentation and exploration. To allow that creative flow to happen and see what we come up with. Maybe extending it further into projects or maybe using the time to

continue exercising our muscle memory and building our vocabulary of marks. It's drop-in but don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

In the past I have had a great response with one-to-one drawing mentoring. Either in person or via Zoom. This works really well for artists who have been frozen for a while or have had to abandon their practice and now want to reconnect to it. It also works well for people who want a bit of individual coaching and tuition before they join a bigger group. It can be inhibiting in a large group and drawing is a delicate thing to do when you are starting out.  I have found even an hour a week has an effect on a person's confidence and wellbeing and, of course,  their drawing.....

Contact me for more information and a chat if you're interested.

If you are stuck in the mud with your drawing just take this little tip that I give to all my students:

Keep a sketchbook handy wherever you find yourself sitting regularly. I keep one on the kitchen table (its a wad of scrap paper held together with a bulldog clip).  The idea is to draw your cup of tea everyday, sitting in this regular spot that you would be sitting in anyway. So it's no extra effort, it's no big deal and it's convenient.  If you do it everyday (more or less) you'll find the drawing will flow you will be less precious, less bothered about the outcome, you will begin to teach yourself by noticing new effects and techniques. It will develop in your own time. You will set yourself up for the day with a sense of achievement and a clear thinking mind. I guarantee. 

Give it a go.

Thanks for reading

Beth

(Chairman of The Drawing Board) always wanted to say that!

I was given a drawing yesterday as I was leaving the school where I work.  I was so touched. The artist is a girl whose imagination and prolific output are infectious. She draws and draws and draws and materialises crafted objects and images out of a font of never ending magic and that is the beauty of uninfluenced, unfettered, free, creative beings.  To be able to tap into that pre-trained essence is a gift and I sadly don't access it easily. but it doesn't stop me trying and B is a reminder, thankfully. Imagine just letting your hand draw what it wanted to without worrying about quality, value and worth and just enjoy the exploration of an unfolding expression?!

New drawing course in Totnes!

I'm really looking forward to running this. It's my belief that when we are drawing we are in the present moment and it's akin to practicing a meditation. To be able to relax and enter into that wonderful state we need to be able to draw without inhibition and so I am going to teach basic techniques with this in mind over the three weeks. Message me if you would like more information.

Workshop in Kingsbridge.

Drawing through Meditation Aller Park

Drawing Through Meditation
Beginning 13th April
a weekly course at Aller Park, Dartington Estate*














A bloc of 6 weeks taking us through the process
of connecting drawing with meditation.
    EVERY WEDNESDAY 1-3pm
    More information and booking via me:
    bethheaneyart@gmail.com
    or Tonja
    thehappinessclub.yahoo.com

http://drawingthroughmeditation.weebly.com

*THE ALLER PARK PROJECT
A centre of education which is now open
with a programme of discussions, meditations,
yoga, talks based on Astrology, Cosmology, Starlore
and so much more
More information:
David Matthews
dave@starlynx.plus.com
























we are going to be holding six weeks of workshops
at the rooms at Aller Park on Wednesdays 1-3pm starting
    from 13th

Meditate into Drawing

Drawing Through Meditation

Have a look at a juicy project I have been working on with a very good friend of mine, Tonja Mills. We have got lots of Drawing Through Meditation workshops and retreats planned for the summer so visit the website and have a look.



http://drawingthroughmeditation.weebly.com

Drink and Draw

If you're in Totnes on a Friday morning drop by the Barrel House from 10.30am with something to draw on/with and get down with the drink and drawers.  It's a free group, just the cost of a coffee or hippy tea, whatever you fancy.  Great people, inspiring sketching, support and warmth, what's stopping you?

Shared drawings

Haven't posted for a long while.......  I have set up a small sketching gathering on Friday mornings which has turned out to be the most relaxing and fulfilling way to spend the morning.  Sarah Scaife got us all doing these shared drawings.  Something I haven't done for a long while and I've put them up to remind us all about letting go, playing with the line and the viewpoint, not being precious about the outcome and above all smiling...... 

Birdwood House Meetings Cancelled

I have had to cancel the Friday sessions at Birdwood House.  Watch this space for a new venue.  In the meantime I have slots available for one to one sessions so if that appeals do get in touch.

Feeling warm and fluffy about the forthcoming drawing session at Birdwood House. The last taster workshop was so enjoyable for me. We got right into the passion and the journey of our own drawings. It was extremely exciting for me to see different voices on the paper and how beautiful and individual these are - no matter how tentative or wary - and watch them grow and reconnect with their strength and expression.

First

meeting

10th

February

2012

Fancy a couple of hours experimenting with marks, getting out some ideas onto paper and generally having a creative epiphany?

Join me at the Mansion, Totnes on Friday 13th between 11am and 1pm.

All materials provided

£10 per person.

Work in Progress

This is the first post for this blog. It's still under construction really but I thought I might stop trying to sort it out to talk about the wonderful benefits of keeping a sketchbook. It's something I always begin with a new client or group.

I often get folk to make their own in a session and then take a look at whatever sketchbook I have on the go at the time. We try and suss out how best to approach the fresh page, the spanking new book that no-one wants to deface. It's really hard to start but once there are a few pages full of stuff to reflect on it just flows.

Ways to begin are endless. It might be sticking a few cuttings of interest in and making notes about them, making a few sketches of something that you see everyday (I have been through phases of drawing my cup of tea every morning).

Every one keeps a sketchbook for different reasons and uses different ways of recording. I have a book that is mainly full of words, like a diary and I have others that are observational sketches and others with ideas and LISTS!!!! The reasons are endless too. I look back on them for ideas for work, for reassurance that I have made some attempt to break the creative block...

I use them to practice my drawing skills and keep my dreams alive - all sorts of wonderful purposes.

So if you are wishing to begin drawing I would thoroughly suggest you get hold of a sketch book or make one. Deface the first page by sticking something in or writing a wish list or a hand print or a big coffee cup stain and then the rest will follow. Your creative flow will flood into this lovely little treasure of inspiration.

Try it. x