The next workshop as part of the Drug of Art x Michael Aldrich Foundation collaboration encouraged pupils from St Gregory’s Catholic School in Tunbridge Wells to explore expression through abstraction.
Led by artist Becky Hancock, the students aged 14 to 17 created charcoal, abstract and expressive drawings, exploring line, shape, adding, taking away and layering.
Becky designed a brilliant workshop to deliver on the Drug of Art’s mission to support mental wellbeing by building confidence :
The aim was to embrace the uncertainty of not knowing, creating without a plan, and listening to your intuition, observing the shapes around them, translating that into mark making…this was all about building self confidence and embracing uncertainty, and not allowing that fear of the unknown to prevent you from taking next steps…
No rights or wrongs! Embracing not knowing! Trusting the process!
The school was equally as enthusiastic:
[The students] learnt a lot and it was a rare opportunity for them to draw freely. Their confidence really developed throughout, thank you for giving them this opportunity!’
Huge thanks also to Cass Art for helping us provide good quality art materials for the workshop.