Breathing   S  p  a  c  e  s

The Power of Green Nature is all around us, therefore undoubtedly has an impact on the public. Whether it’s walking through a park on your way home from work or playing sports in a field, nature surrounds us in one way or another. Nature can take many different forms from large trees to small delicate flowers, from roots pushing up and tearing the pavement apart to plants producing food for the wildlife, nature is certainly a powerful thing. Walking through Didsbury park I no

green under my feet & green in the air taking me back to Eden back to my plant self back to my animal self moving through the spaces of the world rebirthing & rebuilding green chaos feeding the tree feeding the soul feeding the sense of connection & flow green skin of my alien self traveling through multiple dimensions but always with earth on my fingers & between my toes always rooted in the planet below me the beings around me the sky above me breathing the air into my lung

Len Evans is working on his first publication of poetry with our in-house publishing company, SlapDash Publishing Here he shares some recent work: 1 LOWRY’S NEW PARK I stroll a full circuit just inside the fence, just inside my surreal sense of the day. I find and perch on a brand new, black painted bench. I’ve walked into a painting. He’s come further south of the city for this view, minus the factories and smoking homes, but his dogs are here, tails up, inquisitive. Tails d

Green has saved me in lockdown, I have visited Birchfield's Park almost everyday it is where I can breathe, be amongst the trees, hear birdsong, feel the air… Sometimes the noise of speeding cars and gangs of people who shouldn’t be gathered bring me down again, but not for long. The good thing about repeatedly visiting the same bit of green is noticing that it always changes, or that there is always something I have not noticed before. The weather is like changing the lighti

The TLC Art Team have been doing some r+d over the summer and as part of one of our zoom workshops we asked people to write for 5 minutes on the Power of Green. These spontaneous writings then went on to form some inspiration for creating a proposal of future work. It has been a very exciting opportunity to work together in this way, and we wanted to share our spontaneous writing with you - and also encourage you to write under that heading too. When you do this activity, you

I am really enjoying the local parks and gardens at the moment. When the sun comes out especially, the colours and textures and shapes come to light in a very pleasing way. This season is magical! Check the weather, plan ahead or be spontaneous, take the moments that you can to grab a coat and a flask and set off to your local patch of green (red, orange, yellow, brown) and enjoy...

I drew this Teddy Bear, which is older than me! I used pen, pencil crayon and watercolours. It's not a finished drawing and you can still see the wet paint I used to put shadows in. He's sitting on my work desk next to a glass to give an idea of scale. He’s so old that I almost can’t remember the blue grey colour he used to be before his fur fell away leaving threadbare cloth. Drawing by Alison Kershaw Here’s a new project for you to do at home. Think about your most treasure

Pool Arts members have been doing a series of Park Walks. Roger and Anastasia sent the following, on their discovery of the beautiful Black Poplar. Image by Anastasia Anastasia: Artwork from our trip to Alex Park, 24th September,  which I enjoyed immensely! A combination here of photo's taken on my phone,  bark rubbing, (the paper was too thick,and I think pastels or charcoal would have been more effective), contour drawing (it's so hard not to peek at the paper!!), and s