NEW TIME 7:30-8:30pm Thursdays
The Ringway Center 268 Baring Road SE12 0DS
October :
1st
8th
15th
22nd
29th NO GROUP
November :
5th NO GROUP
12th
19th
26th
December :
3rd
10th
17th LAST SESSION
How the group works:
We meet every Thursday with a few exceptions (these will always be indicated here)
It doesn’t matter if you can’t make every session. The group is free to attend.
I bring in freshly cut branches of ash each week from trees that grow in the community centre garden, and we each choose a piece. These ash trees are almost certainly self seeded relations of the spieces that gave the hill its name (Burnt Ash Hill, the name of the next rd over and one of the oldest named roads in the area. There were old charcoal burners cottages on Burnt Ash Hill until the 1960’s when they were demolished in to make way for a Gulf petrol station).
For the duration of the session we see how it feels to try to draw what we see while looking at our little ash twig, what ever state it is at: in bud … in leaf, noticing how it has changed since the previous week.
These drawings are private, and they are a bi-product of the session rather than the goal. At the end of each session they will be collected and I will look after them until the end of the year. There is no right or wrong way to draw, you do not need any experience or even any interest in drawing to take part. The practice of responding to the experience of looking by making marks on paper can effect the feeling of looking and can help us sustain and develop attention, and can help facilitate an open, alert, calm, and productive state of mind.
While drawing we take it in turns to read to each other from writing about nature.
No one has to read if they’d rather not. Listening while drawing can help sustain and deepen the non verbal attention of drawing, by diverting mental energy from the tendency for internal talk and self criticism or the impulse to chat.
We will start by reading Braiding Sweetgrass and then The Service Berry both by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
And if you dont feel like drawing you are welcome to enjoy paying close attention to the twig while listening.
The feedback I have received from people who have joined these groups has been amazing, people often find that it is an activity quite unlike anything else they do, it seems to be both calming and energising at the same time, Its hard to describe.
There is no need to bring anything, everything you will need is provided.
There is no need to book or sign up