an ogre, a seashell and the Cleveleys coastline

Stick with me, this fabulous ogre is 'explained' further on in the post

Last weekend saw our first residential Arts and Faith Network event and it was FaBuLouS!  On Saturday morning I got to be my friend Dee Rollinson's glamourous assistant.  This was a real treat as I got to spend time listening to how she ran a workshop.  Dee has a counselling background so it was interesting to hear her include some deep reflections alongside her art project.

Here she is posing for me when she realised I was taking a photograph of her taking photographs of the masks people had made.  Over lunch we transformed the room, partly so those people taking both Dee's and my workshops knew these were different events!!

I know I've said this before, but I love how differently people use colours and images.  I used this little star bird by Stampotique as my Christmas card but he looks fabulous on a journal page..

And how gorgeous are those little hand printed daisies?!

One of the real treats of the weekend was to have Jan Dean as a wandering poet, reflecting on the whole weekend's events and noting them in her 'little green book' (a thing of beauty in itself, hand bound with coptic stitch).  Here is part of her description of my workshop....

... which really touched me as, for me, that's what I want people to get out of my workshop, a real sense of playing.  I don't think we play enough (me included!), and it's so beneficial for our emotional and mental health.

Meals at Foxhill are lovely; even the biscuits are beautifully arranged at each coffee break!  After dinner, another treat; a talk by the extremely talented Stephen Broadbent.  He shared the stories behind some of his community sculptures but the one which touched us all, and is sending us up the coastline as soon as we can get there, was the Mythic Coast  project up at Cleveleys.

Sunday morning saw us spending more time with Stephen but this time we were busy 'doing'.  He generously made us all a wire sculpture each of a person which we all then personalised....

... before spending time in the chapel looking at how different each sculpture was and hearing the stories behind their creation.

The weekend was concluded with a service in the Chapel, where we also celebrated all the differing pieces of art work that had been produced - sculpture, silk painting, masks, art journaling and poetry....

  

Foxhill is a very peaceful place and if you live near Frodsham you can take a walk in its gardens anytime.

It truly is a place ...