Hello Sketching friends!!
Long time no see and you have all been missed. I just realised half of 2025 has just slipped away. Truth be told, there were many moments of doubt at the start of the year and I was unsure if I could continue to inspire and deliver high quality workshops. Now looking back, the challenges are all surmountable when I learn how to break down my big challenges into bite size tasks. Just tackle one baby task at a time.
So here is a creative workout for you to exercise your creative muscles and increase your dexterity in your creative bank account. This idea struck few weeks ago so today I just had to record what inspired me. The premise is about learning how to transform a fixed object/shape or idea and challenge the rigidity of our thinking processes. Divergent is key. You will see a lot of breaking, exploding, extruding and expanding beyond the familiar. Great exercise to expand your visual appreciation for form and space making.
Many are curious about my internal conversations and what goes through my mind during my creative workouts, so I decided to comply a short list of creative prompts for you to try. Use these prompts to play and do a fun creative conversation with yourself. It can be challenging so don’t over think. Just response, move to your favourite music and have FUN!
Here is an example of how creative warm-up and exercise helped me with my still life painting.
I hope this creative workout has inspired you. Practice this often and see how this creative dexterity will gradually permeate your life. Oh don’t forget to check out all my upcoming art retreats and workshops too. And I will see some of you very soon in Poznan for our annual Urbansketchers’ symposium. Stay well and safe until the next post!
ART FOOD CULTURE IN HOI AN, VIETNAM
Date: January 23 - February 1, 2026
A Premium experience. meticulously designed by Anna Barnes and myself to help you unwind. This 10 day experience is also perfect balance of tutored art sessions (8 art workshops), local town visits, guided history & culture tours with our professional guide. We will explore the living culture of Central Vietnamese people and take you into the UNESCO heritage town of Hoi An for daily demonstrations and opportunities to discover the beauty of Vietnam slowly in comfort.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION & REGISTRATION.
Make Your Mark - A Sketching PlayLab Retreat with Artists Paul Wang and Suhita Shirodkar in France
Date: May 13-20, 2026
This is your long awaited opportunity to join Suhita Shirodkar and myself for a transformative sketching retreat in southern France. You will learn how to play with watercolor and develop your personal sketching style through lots of experimentation.
Alongside a supportive community of fellow artists, we will demonstrate innovative techniques to help you make the most out of painting on-location, and encourage you to connect to your surroundings more deeply. The retreat is open to all levels of experience; just bring yourself and an open mind.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION & REGISTRATION
ONLINE WORKSHOPS with North West Watercolour Society
My recorded live zoom workshops with NWWS is now available for purchase and viewing. I taught these 2 workshops last year to rooms full of enthusiastic sketchers and painters. Both workshops are about how to be more playful with our mark-making through the use of unconventional tools. Even though the contents and format of the 2 workshops are the same, I used different photo references to show the adaptability of the tools and thinking. Two different groups of live audience also made the teaching and learning unique and exciting.
CLICK HERE FOR THE ONLINE WORKSHOPS
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