City of Dreaming Spires

“And that sweet city with her dreaming spires,
She needs not June for beauty’s heightening,”

— Matthew Arnold

Last weekend (well it was when I started writing this!) I was lucky enough to attend the 'Call of the Wild Soul' art retreat in Oxford led by Wild Souls, Erin Faith Allen, Tamara Laporte (AKA Willowing), and Claire Russell. The retreat took place in the beautiful Magdalen College which is one of the most beautiful places on earth to spent a weekend.

The college is unique in that it has its own deer park, home to Red & Roe Deer, a tower where the chapel choir sings at 6am on May Morning to welcome in the spring and a most spectacular set of cloisters which seem to be the heart of the college and my favourite place there.

I thought the planting of green Hydrangeas interspersed with what I think was a dark Berberis was inspired, and I don't think I have ever seen quite so many gargoyles and statues in one place!

A particular treat was to hear members of the Genesis Sixteen practising for evensong in the chapel . The acoustics must be truly wonderful as from outside of the chapel the sound seemed as if it came from the choir of 100, on investigating however, I found there were only 5 people responsible for making this glorious noise!

The Sixteen's conductor Harry Christophers and singer and practical scholar Sally Dunkley introduce this year's Choral Pilgrimage tour.

Everywhere you looked there were ancient artefacts and items of everyday use that had been crafted with love and care

Then there were the gardens - an oasis of calm and colour especially the stunning herbaceous borders - always a favourite with me,

enjoyed by college members and visitors alike

Even with a fair sprinkling of tourists around the sense of calm and peace prevailed, and this, together with the hours dedicated to making art and connecting with kindred spirits, made for a very special weekend

“Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with
angels.”

— Richard Wilbur

Call of the Wild Soul - Take 3

Day three of the retreat I went to Teesha Moore's workshop. Much more physically relaxing than Flora’s - you got to sit down a lot! Again there was a wonderful energy within the room. Each day of the retreat the energy has been unique and inspiring. I loved Teesha's laid back style of chatting, demonstrating and explaining, interspersed with stories of her life. She also brought lots of her wonderful journals for us to look at, and the class pack contained lots of goodies too!

I found getting started quite hard particularly when we stopped collaging and needed to doodle and add our own changes to the pictures. Despite Teesha's warning for some reason I used the watercolor crayon, perhaps because they were a tool I was familiar with, which meant I was unable to write over the surface with most pens.

Since I have returned home I have made a journal using the method shown on Teeshas website ( loads of great how to do videos here do visit) and have finished the first couple of pages. Now I am finding the collaging the most difficult part - I seem to be resisting going with the flow in favour of locating the perfect picture and generally over-thinking. That said, I am trying to take risks with my doodling and overall am quite pleased with the results.

The whole retreat was inspirational and I can’t wait to go on another one! Aside from the art-making the community created was fantastic and the bonfire on the Saturday night under the full moon and shimmering stars was very special! thank you so much to Erin, Simon, Flora, Orly, Madelyn and Teesha and of course my fellow wild souls!

Call of the Wild Soul - Take 2

On day two of Call of the Wild Soul I took Flora Bowley's class. Having already bought her book ‘Brave Intuitive Painting’ I had some idea of what to expect. Flora did not disappoint!

There are very few pictures in this post as I did not take my camera to the class as I felt that paint covered hands and my DSLR didn’t mix too well. I took a couple of pictures with my phone at the end and really regret not taking more.

We started the class with a circle and I was reminded of the book ‘Calling the Circle’ by Christina Baldwin which I read a while back. Flora had made a centerpiece from beautiful things she had found in the garden. After spending time on introductions and intentions we did some gentle exercises and then danced around the room for a while to loosen up our bodies. Then the painting began! First we created shared Mandala’s before a demonstration of Flora’s painting techniques and beginning to make marks on our paper.

The pattern of the day was that we would work on two paintings then have a break while Flora demonstrated a new technique for us to practice. About half way through this process we were asked to swap one of our two paintings with our neighbour and continue to work on it as our own. This came as a bit of a shock to most of us! One of Flora’s key ideas is that we shouldn't get too attached to our work as this can stop us progressing it. “Paint over something you like with something you love”

After several layers she asked us to step back from our paintings and identify what we really liked e.g. shapes / colour combinations, with a view to doing more of those. We also looked for shapes we could turn into objects. I didn’t think I had any in my picture that could turn into anything so it was a real ‘lightbulb’ moment when I turned it upside down and found 3 people hiding in there! Similarly I found a cloaked figure in my other painting.

At the end of the class we held a closing circle thanks to Flora nad the ther calss members for making it such a fab day

Things I took away from the class were non-attachment, just going with the flow and the techniques Flora uses - I can’t wait to get rid of this cold ( streaming cold and painty hands not a good mix) and get painting!

Call of the Wild Soul - Take 1

I'm just back from the fabulous Call of the Wild Soul art retreat at Croydon Hall on Exmoor. The retreat is the inspiration of Erin Faith Allen and was just amazing. My only regret is that it was only possible to take classes from 3 of the 4 wonderful teachers there. I have decided to write a separate post for each class starting with day one when I took Madelyn Mulvaney's Persisting Soul class, which was based on photography rather than painting. It was a relaxed and gentle day with words of wisdom interspersed with exercises in pairs and a post lunch photo walk.

During the first exercise we were looking and embracing and releasing and went out into the slightly damp and misty garden to take photos.

I also used the opportunity to take some of the wonderful moss covered tree trunks in the garden.

Back in the classroom we looked at examples of manifestos and began to brainstorm some ideas for our own - here is mine which I finished on my return home.

After a delicious lunch (would certainly recommend the food at Croydon Hall) we went on a photo walk. There was so much to capture even though we went a relatively short way. This is just a small sample of the photos I took

The second theme of the day was journeys and destinations and my workshop partner and I took various photos around the house and garden.

In between all the other activities we also played around with vintage Polaroid film which produced pictures with a soft light and interesting striped effects. I can remember these from my parents Polaroid owning days when striped photos were not seen as an interesting, artistic or desirable outcome, rather the reverse! Still finding it hard to get my head around this!

Finally we did the self portrait section of the class. Each choosing how we would like the other to photograph us and then choosing a feature of the other to shoot. my partner chose to have a photo just of her foot with adorning anklet and I chose to take a photo of her amazing eyes.

Finally I chose to have a head and shoulders portrait wearing one of my favourite pink scarfs from Marrakech( have photoshopped the results a bit!) whereas my partner chose to take a picture of my hair.

It really was a fabulous day - big thanks to Maddy and all the other wild souls!