Saturday February 26, 2011

Brave Art

It’s been a busy start to the year. Just a few weeks into 2011 and I’ve had workshops with WONDERFUL, courageous folk in Maylands, Nedlands, Victoria Park and Kensington, two emergency runs to the hospital for Greg (he’s back home now), and a complete new set of cookware for the first time in 26 years (thank you Aunty Sush!). I’ve made some fabulous new friends and witnessed the creation of over 100 new paintings … mostly by people who have never painted before. Their courage in confronting their ‘art anxiety’ … risking public humiliation … braving the heat … to learn how to make art in my workshops, has been a source of joy and inspiration to me. Thank you all, you intrepid new artists! You all truly made ‘Brave Art’ (see one of the newspaper articles below).

Looks like the chocolate I gave them did the trick :)

Here are some excerpts of feedback from those courageous souls this year:

Marlene said, “I can’t wait to do some more painting, it was such a relaxing day, I even did not worry about the heat I was concentrating so much.”

Jade mused, “I am actually quite surprised that I may be a little more creative then I thought!”

and Jenny wrote, “Thank you for the wonderful art class on Tuesday and your delightful company. It truly was a beginner’s class for me - the beginning of a new passion!”

Scientist Sarah offered, “the only criticism - it wasn't long enough!!! We were both so disappointed when the day ended! If we could, we probably would have stayed there all night to continue our painting!” 

Pressing Matters

There’s been some great articles about the workshops this month: Kelly Exeter’s blog (I Love Pretty Things): “It takes a beautiful soul to create beautiful art” made me cry…thank you Kelly! and a couple of appearances in the local papers (Southern Gazette and Canning Times). You can check out the article “Classes for the Anxious Novice" here. Every member of my family made amused reference to the swear word in that article (it’s pretty tame, see if you can find it!).

Join the Brave HeARTists

If you’d like to join these intrepid adventurers, who have taken the plunge and explored their creative side with stunning results (like Sue's on the right), don’t put it off any longer (or come back and do a refresher).

Upcoming PAINTING for BEGINNERS classes:

Sunday March 6: Victoria Park
Sunday March 13: Nedlands
Monday March 28: Maylands
Sunday April 3: Victoria Park

There's also Focus on Colour Workshop coming up on Sunday April 17, and if none of these dates suit, Beginners Intensives are held every first Sunday of the month in Victoria Park.

If you’re wondering what sort of art we make, I teach my process, and you can check out my work at www.maliniparker.com
 

The challenge of staying calm in turbulent times

Earthquakes in NZ and floods across the country here in Oz. - these are severely challenging times for so many folk … but even without an actual natural disaster, every one of us experiences an emotional equivalent of one, from time to time. Learning to maintain a sense of joyfulness and tranquillity when things seem so uncertain is my most treasured (and elusive) goal. This humourous and gentle TED talk by Neil Pasricha about precisely this topic reminded me of the simple ways we can all do this …maybe it will touch a chord within you too. It made me smile :)

Thank you for sharing this space...

If you've enjoyed spending time here, drop me a line, let me know what you thought ... I love hearing from you. And I would be SO pleased if you scrolled down and clicked on 'Forward this email to a Friend'. I can’t wait to meet new ‘brave heARTists’ …!

Until next time, I wish you bucket loads of happy things and plenty of creative outbursts!

PS The great photographs in this newsletter are by Mary Parker (a close relative…well, actually she’s my gorgeous daughter :) Check out her more of her work here.