artist led courses & workshops Expression through Art

About the course
Ideal for both adults and children, the ‘Expression through Art’ course provides a safe, secure, non-competitive and non-judgmental environment in which adults and children alike can feel relaxed, accepted, and free to create artistic expressions of themselves in the way that they want. The full support and guidance of a professional artist gives them the expertise, tools, techniques and encouragement they need to create original, unique works of art.

• Relaxation
The course’s approach to painting is to work with the more intuitive and creative parts of the brain using feelings of relaxation and well-being to stimulate creativity and allow it to flow freely.

• Freedom
It’s not about learning facts and techniques and how to apply them (though we might cover some of those if useful). It’s about working from what’s inside you and enabling you to be able to express that freely and uniquely through art.

• Opening up
It aims to open the channel between what’s inside you to your ability to express that in a creation of colour, shape and form.

Course format
The course is flexible in format to allow for spontaneity and natural development, with an overall aim and structure. Each session will have as its goal, the creation of an original work of art from the expression of one’s thoughts, feelings, emotions, beliefs – a unique and personal expression of self. How each individual will arrive at that goal will be different, helped and supported by the course leader who will give individual attention to each course participant and help them to develop their own personal ideas and aims.

Who it’s for and how it works
Courses are available for both adults and children – and also groups with particular special needs such as children in hospital.

Courses aim to stimulate the more intuitive, subjective, random and holistic parts of our brain (often called the right brain). Learning environments often tend towards using the left brain (more logical, sequential, rational and analytical). But experts believe that using both sides of the brain leads to optimum learning, especially in children.

This course aims to redress the balance for both adults and children, releasing the benefits of an active right brain.

Adults
The aim is to work more with the more intuitive, creative part of your brain by providing a free, calm and relaxed environment in which you will feel more able to access feelings, thoughts, impressions and goals, which during a busy life, are often difficult to reach. It’s suitable for adults who want to:
• express themselves through art but don’t know where to start
• find a pleasurable way to relax and slow down, let go and recharge, while creating something which is an expression of themselves.

Benefits to adults
• improved concentration
• release of tension
• feelings of well-being from creative fulfilment
• developing of creativity and self-expression
• increased self-confidence and self-esteem
• increased relaxation to enable improved concentration in other areas of life

Children
Activities that use the right brain as an aid to learning is an approach that is well-researched. Schools in general favour more left-brain (analytical, logical, objective) approaches to thinking and learning, but a whole brain approach is believed to be more effective and beneficial.

This course aims to provide that balancing right-brain activity, to enhance children’s ability to concentrate and assimilate in other areas of learning.

It’s ideal for both primary and secondary school children – both within and outside the school environment – including children with special needs or children who may have concentration or application difficulties

Benefits to children
• helps them express feelings they can’t perhaps easily identify or articulate
• helps concentration
• increases confidence and feelings of self worth
• relaxes them so they are able to tackle other things with more energy
• engages their interest by giving them freedom of choice enables them to relate colour, emotion and vision with self-expression
• supports them in learning the techniques, colours and shapes to use for what they want to show.

Specialist groups
Painting from an intuitive, creative approach which works with feelings can be therapeutic for a wide range of needs, in both children and adults, in particular:
• special groups where creative workshops can cut through barriers such as language or social estrangement
• hospital or other therapeutic groups where group members need to be able to express their feelings (sometimes in non-verbal ways) to aid their recovery and rehabilitation.

Benefits to group members:
• helps them to express feelings which may be difficult to articulate
• increases confidence and feelings of self worth
• encourages feelings of well-being and fulfilment
• releases tension
• provides an avenue for self-expression by encouraging relaxation can improve achievement in other areas of life.

Types of course
Flexible classes are available, which could include:
•  workshops (half day, whole day or weekends)
• daytime classes
• evening classes
• children’s after school and Saturday classes
• one-off classes as part of other programmes.

What do I bring?
Materials will be provided. All you have to do is bring yourself in clothes that you don’t mind getting painted!

For further details of the type of course that interests you please see the website:

www.expressionthroughart.com