In September, Moray Art Centre (MAC) led an Art in Nature workshop to help people acclimatise to post-lockdown life with others and to appreciate the feeling of freedom art and the natural environment can offer. Moray Wellbeing Hub offered support and advice whilst promoting the workshop with their users.
Setting the scene for the workshop was Jack from Wild Things, telling us all about the creatures, habitats, sights and smells of this beautiful environment. We heard of the folklore around the rowan tree, delved into the life of fungi, and learnt of how the rocks of the Cairngorms end up at Findhorn Beach.
Artist Iona Leishman then helped us create a huge joint mural, using found objects from our experience of the outdoors. Getting mucky with paint in the beautiful MAC garden, we were all being kids again! You needed no previous artistic experience and we all got stuck in to make this wonderful piece that shall hang on display in MAC from this month.
Each of us felt buoyed by the experience with one participant remarking “thank you so much for letting my inner arty self and child out for a play”.
Moray Art Centre are now in the process of applying for grant funds in the hope that a series of similar workshops can be run in 2022 for care home residents, kids, and men’s groups, with a focus on mental health and anyone who may want to while away an afternoon in the outdoors while creating art to last
For further information on Moray Art Centre, please visit the website here.
