Nature Beats - Natural art and Instrument making

Making art and instruments in nature...

It's Week 4 in the woods and after we have connected in with each other and the land with sit spots, camp set up and our talking circle around the fire we are taking inspiration from Andy Goldsworthy images of Natural art pieces.

The group goes off to collect leaves, sticks, berries, flower petals, stones, bones and whatever else catch our eye throughout the woodland. We are blessed with blue skies and sunshine. The exploration is key to learning about the environment, discovering new plants and things unseen before and transforming what could be mistaken for green and brown woodland in to every colour imaginable and every shape.

Nature offers so much inspiration for artists and this opens the door to such detail, a spiraling fern, a perfect bluebell flower, the jagged teeth of the dandelion leaves so called as in French it simply means ‘teeth of the lion’.  Last week we saw how it roots can be made in to coffee or cooked like parsnips. Of course you need to identify them correctly and make sure it is the actual root and not that of a neighboring poisonous plant. The flower can be put in batter and fried. I love them like that and they taste sweet like mild honey but today they are making a beautiful round circle on the ground and above it an upside down basket, a circle of surrounding bent twig meeting in the centers as the art pieces begin.

When they find their place to create their piece they are encouraged to go for it and to let the piece develop. Not to think too much about it. One young person start with a mini stick wall that becomes a small dwelling with doorways and grass roof, another by creating a circle of holly leaves and fern fronds, she scrapes around the circle exposing the darker soil. The finished picture won’t have that rich smell of the earth of the live gallery. After initial chatter the conversation dies down there is a peaceful focus as the group expands upon the shapes and patterns that are forming, some flat on the ground, other 3 dimensional.

With art material selected the first designs and ideas composed further exploration of the woodland is needed to add another layer, an out circle, to choice to build up or dig down.

The finished pieces are stunning.