I just spent 3 days in Glastonbury on an art retreat. Glastonbury was something else – I don’t know what I was expecting. Anything goes, fairies, angels, goddess’s . The high street is a multicoloured eclectic feast.
One of the highlights of my visit was an hour spent in the Chalice Well Gardens, wandering with friends in the sunshine exploring and then lying on the grass in the warmth for a few moments. 
Erin’s workshops were a mixture of talking, short demos and lots of free styling. I felt quite liberated and my never NEED to draw a mandala again.
I am extremely untidy by nature- drawing mandalas over the last three years has really honed my hand eye co-ordination, but lately it was an addiction and any bored moment that threatened was filled with detailed circles.
Working with expressing my inner space through collage and paint was like breathing freely, after struggling up a steep hill with asthma on a cold morning.
The first night I had terrible nightmares about screaming and a nasty beastie coming to get me. I worked on these along side my Inner Space work.
The first morning we got up early and walked up Glastonbury Tor, forgetting to check the visibility and weather before hand. It was cold and wild , the wind threatened to steal my phone out of my hands on a couple of occasions
I love using bright colours , thinking about my inner space after the walk – had me painting in blue and orange, my blue seeping into the hard alien world and neutralising the noisy orange
We tried different techniques mark making , sewing ( I forgot how much I love to sew) and burning our fears which was cathartic
The resulting papers and fabric were such fun I had to do a few more.
They were glued and stitched onto my journal pages. I seem happy to let go of mandalas but circles are going to remain a recurring theme
We made patterned papers that were stitched and ripped to make great edges and loose fragile pieces to add texture and interest. I like the way sewing allows a freedom between the pieces which tends to get lost when you use glue
Deb made a surreal pink rabbit stamped sheet to represent an outer world and after my initial laughter he became a motif on my pages- when I get back I am going to have to carve mine own little monster to represent my nightmares.
The next few days we woke up to beautiful clear skies- Deb and Kath went back up the Tor to experience the sunrise. I wanted to add some colour to my moody grey photos so I overlaid my Tor with my orange / blue picture – it went through a prisma filter as well.
We did a powerful group constellation therapy on the last evening and worked with how we can access strength and help within our selves by considering all those that donated their genes to create us. I love group work and sitting and painting with these women all week and then the doing the constellation was powerful. I have been fighting putting my name down on the waiting lists for art studios in Edinburgh , that is going to happen now and I am going to work exploring more abstract messy pieces.
The last morning we worked on how ‘yes’ and ‘no’ can be explored through our bodies and then into paint and collage
I also worked on a ‘happy’ painting making on some abstract circles – I only realised half way through that there were 12 of us in the room
Two finished spreads
Focused Spells
What does the inside / outside feel like?
tesswyatt's Blog 
LOVE LOVE LOVE these. But what did “how ‘yes’ and ‘no’ can be explored through our bodies” mean in your workshop’s context? Did you dance, sing, scream, or just explore on paper? I’d love to attend a workshop like this. You know I’ve been doing art therapy, but mine is only 1.5 hours per week on Skype; I often worked on my kitchen table, and at the end we went back to our regular life While it was amazing how much we could share on Skype with the right mix of people, still, the transition to/from the mundane kind of ruined the experience. I’m exploring ways to… carry on on my own and in my head, if not in deed, and …. train my … “making” muscles. Thanks for sharing your experience. Glastonbury sounds FANTASTIC, but Middle Earth should be OK, too.
I’ll see you stitching yet!! So glad you had a wonderful time in Glastonbury, it’s a very special place.
When I stitch I remember how much I love it – there is a limit to the amount of different types of mess I can make in my flat lol