Abstract Painting Workshops

The Saturday Cafe at Inkwell provides a safe relaxed space for people from the community and service users to enjoy good home cooked food, a lovely friendly environment, live music events and creative workshops for adults and children. On the 2nd Saturday of every month from 1.30pm - 3.30pm we run the Abstract Painting Workshop - (without a brush) which is led by one of our artists and volunteers Jay Gadhia.

Jay describes his ideas behind starting the workshop and why paint without a brush?

“The abstract painting workshop has been running for 7 months now and has gone from strength to strength. We have had a mixture of new faces and regular attendees every month. The returning artists have been inspired to try new painting tools and techniques and a variety of painting materials are brought in each week for the group to try.

I am a practicing artist and run my own studio. I don’t consider myself to have a particular style and transiently flow between disciplines as the mood strikes. As I have learnt from my own work, the process of mark making is often as important as the work produced at the end. The journey in creating the piece is as important as the completed piece. A testament to the process so to speak. Being process led is, for me, a safe and akin to a meditative process.

The attendees can guarantee a safe, vibrant atmosphere in which to use paint in a different way to express themselves. Art has always been my own therapy and it’s incredible seeing other people get the same joy from it that I often do. It’s a pleasure to see people getting ‘lost’ in their own work and that for me is priceless.

I wanted to create a safe space where people could on one hand, express themselves with art and on the other feel a sense of freedom in not using a brush. There is a beauty in brushwork but this class is to almost promote re-purposing any materials found around the home or outdoors as a potential mark making tool. Things like drift wood, packaging, twigs, egg boxes, tinfoil, string, and sponges. ”

Some quotes from the artists who have attended:

“The shackles have come off”

“I felt lost without a paintbrush at the beginning… but you suddenly start seeing everything as a way of making marks”

“I’m always drawn to the same set of colours but get such different results every session”

 

Upcoming dates for the workshops are as follows:

Every 2nd Saturday of the month @ Inkwell

14th February 1.30pm - 3.30pm

14th March 1.30pm - 3.30pm

11th April 1.30pm - 3.30pm

9th may 1.30pm - 3.30pm

Ages 16+

No booking is required and we welcome people of all abilities from the complete beginner to the more experienced artist.

Cost £5 per person. All materials are provided.

We hope you can come along and enjoy painting with Jay at one of his next sessions.