A Year of Inspiration from Nature

I've been busy getting my workshops planned for 2016 and they are all available to book in my shop and Eventbrite page.

I've planned seasonally inspired workshops throughout the year that will share the techniques and ideas behind my mixed media landscapes. Designed to fit together to give you creative confidence and help you develop your visual language, the days can stand alone or be booked as a set of four.

Book all four workshops together and receive a gift of my 'I am Nature - Working with Nature as Inspiration' CD and a mini print from my range (RRP £25)

Spring Sketchbooks - Saturday February 6th 2016

Mark Making - Saturday June 25th 2016

Evoking the Seasons - Saturday October 1st 2016

Stitch techniques with Paper - Saturday November 12th 2016

Melbourne Festival 2015

The annual event that is the Melbourne Festival is a sight to behold! The village of Melbourne, Derbyshire is kidnapped by artists and makers who fill every available space. Home owners are held to ransom and give up their conservatories, and dining rooms as exhibition space. Shop windows and shops are filled with art and gardens are turned into sculpture venues. By magic the sun is made to shine and for forty eight hours visitors come from far and wide to buy beautiful jewellery, ceramics and art.  

The flow of life is ever onward

So it is October (already!) and we are betwixt and between seasons. It has been a fine September of misty mornings and sunny afternoons and I've been absorbing the sun's rays as much as possible. I suffer from seasonal adjustment disorder and so it is a bitter sweet time of year. I love the sense of change of autumn. I love the sense of letting go. I love the rhythm of the days that equal the nights and the sense of sunrise and sunset that keeps a gentle beat to life. But in there I feel the retraction of the sun, the shift to cloudier days, nights drawing in. And so I try to find solace in capturing the memories of late summer, of capturing the sun in my work as a talisman to use on darker days to ward off the dragging greyness that winter can bring. I use the sun in my work to keep a light burning in my soul.

Radiant Light -visit my shop at www.helenhallows.com

And it is that sense of capturing the sun, the autumn trees, the intense palette of reds, yellows and ochres that will inspire my next workshops, 'Shine Like the Sun' on Saturday October 10th in Long Eaton and 'Grow Your Own Art' on Saturday 17th October at Focus Gallery in Nottingham. Using multi media techniques with paint, inks and collage, students will create a collaged block, inspired by the season.

Garden Shine

Summer is still shining her light here and I am soaking it up and storing it! I'm juggling family days with studio days. Colour is every where and it is soaking into my soul. I love this time of year, the days feel full and nature is bountiful. We've started to crop our produce at the allotment and are enjoying courgettes, blackberries, plums and beans. 

In the garden I see the sun in everything, the apples are swelling, the sunflowers reaching for the sky. This rudbeckia is my latest addition to the garden along with some dahlias that are going to sing their song as summer fades.

The sun is infusing my work too. It's life giving force has been a powerful symbol in art through all time. Ever since childhood I've enjoyed drawing that circle of radiating light. I'm going to use these images in the darker days of Autumn and Winter to remind myself of that warm energy. If you'd like to create a sun collage, an amulet of summer energy, why not join me for my creative collage workshop on Saturday October 10th in Long Eaton? 

'Shine like the Sun' is available to book here. If you can't come to an in-person workshop you can find out more about my connection to nature and the seasons and how you can use them to develop your creativity by listening to my spoken word creative visualisation CD 'I am Nature'. Available in my online shop for £10.

'I am Nature' - Creative Visualisations CD Launch

In the last year I have lost and found myself creatively. Established ways of working no longer seemed to thrill me and I felt disconnected from my art and creative space. I felt like I was ticking the boxes but sleep walking through life.

It has been a period of great vulnerability for someone who has always trusted their creative flow. I had never had the feeling of fear before when I sat with a piece of paper or a new sketchbook. I had lost the feeling of my creative destiny. And it hurt. Feeling blocked disconnected me from my inner self.

Last winter I started to write again. I loved to write when I was younger but the business of my days meant I had stopped  Through journalling I was able to express my feelings and reflect. I was able to respond to why I create. I was able to listen to my heart. I unearthed a deep connection to nature as the source of my creativity. I recognised this in myself and my work but I had forgotten to honour it. I had forgotten to honour myself.

Through going in to nature I was able to heal my creative soul. I walked with my head up and saw the birds swoop. I sat in the garden with a blanket and absorbed the rays of the sun. The day of the eclipse of the sun was an epiphany; I treasured my life, my purpose and my place in nature.

I have taken sections of my writings and recorded them as a spoken word CD, 'I am Nature' - Creative visualisations for working with nature as inspiration.' The words are an expression of where my creativity comes from and how I use the seasons to create a rhythm for my life. In publishing this, I hope to share my love of nature and awaken others' creativity. It has been an exciting process to take my heart felt feelings and work with a team in bringing my words to life and into a format I can share.

Each section is a narrative of the season and is followed by silent time for creative visualisation. There are short tasks to centre you in nature and nurture your creative process. 

"I find myself in nature. It is my guide. I create with nature and my work celebrates my connection with the source.

My work is an expression of all that I feel when I connect with the earth. It captures a moment when all my senses are engaged in a creative epiphany. My expression of this is through mixed media art. However we express ourselves, art, music, poetry, we need to be open to receiving inspiration. We need to create a space, physically and spiritually to create from. There is a sacred space where our inner and outer worlds merge." HH2015

To buy 'I am Nature' at the early bird price of £10 (includes UK p&p) click here. And for international delivery here.

I would like to thank Fiona Pattison at Happy Press for believing in me and in this project. Also Craig Shaw at Happy Photography for his amazing photographs. And Piper Dawes at Calder Recordings for her patience in bringing my words to life.

Growing with Summer

Here is my wonderful class of Summer 15 who attended my 'Grow Your Own Art' workshop. We started the day grounding ourselves ready to grow our creativity and express what summer and growth means to each of us. I shared tutorials on papers, glues, symbolic art and how and where I get my inspiration. Each attendee created a unique, vibrant work of art that spoke of their own creative journey and their own experiences of summertime. It was a pleasure to see all the work at the end of the day!

I will be running the 'Grow Your Own Art' workshop again on the 17th October in Nottingham and also a new workshop 'Shine like the Sun' in Long Eaton on the 10th of October. You can find all the details on my website.

Creative nourishment - May

I treated myself to two days in London so I could find nourishment for the ideas in my head. As spring has advanced, the murmurings of my winter mind are starting to find a voice. At the forefront of these ideas are a wish to embrace colour. With that is a return to a love of folk art and a symbolic expression of the soul. My soul.

I have found my way back in to nature, planting my garden and meandering in the woods. My work has often included trees and it is to trees I am returning for inspiration. At the weekend I was fortunate to visit the Weleda gardens. It was a beautiful fresh spring day and I could feel the sap rising in the trees there, and in myself. It is that connection between us and the trees, the 'tree of life' that is a symbol of many cultures, that I am exploring in my new work.

So, with those ideas in my mind I headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum to explore their collection. I've been visiting the museum since childhood and there is magic in those rooms of beautifully crafted artefacts.

I spent hours drawing from the collections, recording decorative details and symbols of trees and growth and shared a connection with those makers who had drawn from our shared symbolic language. 

Whilst there I had the opportunity to attend the Alexander McQueen retrospective. Not usually drawn to fashion couture, this exhibition blew me away. The creation of the exquisite and the totality of McQueens creative vision was hugely inspiring. It was beautifully curated, sensory exhibition. What I take from the exhibition is to honour the urge to create and to nurture my creativity and creative voice.

So back in the studio this week, I'm working on vision boards and bringing together the threads of ideas so I can start some new work.

If you would like to share a day with me creating with symbols to represent the universal themes of growth and life, I'm running a 'Grow your own art' workshop on Saturday 27th June in Long Eaton near Nottingham. It will be about finding ways to move forward on your creative journey and you will create your own work of art that symbolises growth. I'm taking bookings now. 

Getting ready

Ive been getting ready for Spring. More than ever I feel a connection to the seasons and through the Winter felt obliged to hibernate! It's been a time of reflection. I've been taking stock of who I am and where I want to be and as these dreams grow with the energy of Spring, I look forward to sharing them.

I am delighted to have had my work included in a watercolour technique book, 'Just Add Watercolour" by Helen Birch. You can have a preview here (I'm at 1min 04 seconds!): 

The image featured 'A Slow Spring' is available to buy as a print in my shop:

A Slow Spring

I'm now on Instagram if you'd like to keep up to date with how I'm seeing the world!

Sun Drenched

Just before I go off for a sun drenched weekend I wanted to show you my new work.  I've been working on a collection of small landscapes for a new print collection.  I thought it might be interesting to take photos as the work progressed and I've embedded a slideshow in this blog's sidebar.  Let me know what you think!

New Day

Full Moon

Sun Drenched

Quiet