GET CREATIVE DURING

Nurture your creativity during lockdown

Why not awaken your inner creativity? Local artist and teacher Jax Crew shows us how to channel nature’s inspiration through journalling; or dust off your camera and record life around you or put pen to paper and write a poem

Nature Journalling

All around us I am noticing the verdant plant growth emerging and the birdsong has become more noticeable; and I want to be a part of it. Looking at nature and observing details reconnects us and helps us appreciate the rich, complex, fascinating and beautiful world we live in, giving us hope. It can also make us want to find out more about nature and can help improve our memory.

Nature journalling is simply recording observations, thoughts and feelings noted from our gardens or when out on walks. Making a special time for this - perhaps a daily practice - in a notebook is a way of slowing down and making meaning of life. 1oticing the infinite variations in nature broadens our view and asking questions can channel our minds in new directions, helping us to see connections and comparisons.

Make sure you chose something that interests you: leaves, stream currents, cracks in the mud, a flock of birds, a spider. A defined focus helps you spend your time making observations, not working out what to observe. Before you start take a few deep breaths and go through your senses, what do you see, feel, smell, hear, touch?

You will need a notebook and pens/pencils/crayons to write and sketch with. 0ake different scales of sketches  close ups, little landscapes, maps; areas of colour; weather icons; notes about sounds, smells, textures; numbers, where objects are counted; arrows to connect words to a part of the drawing. Write about feelings, ideas, thoughts, you might want to write down what it is that makes you love a particular place, or object; questions; reminders to research something.

It doesn’t matter if you think you cannot draw: just make a quick sketch, a little scribble. My sketches might not look very good but it doesn’t matter, the process helps me notice things I wouldn’t ordinarily do, it slows me down.

Looking back at your journal later, you will be surprised at what connections you have made and what details you have observed. These activities can lift our creative spirit, reconnecting us to nature which is essentially our lifeblood.

Follow Jax on Instagram at jaxcrewartist

Lockdown photography competition

Stamford Arts Centre is looking for interesting, fun or inspiring photos that show how you, your family (and maybe even your pets) are getting on during the lockdown. Take a photo at home, in the garden or when you go outside for exercise.

There will be prizes for the best entries, and entries will be published on the Guildhall and Stamford Arts Centre website, on social media and displayed in some venues for everyone to see when we all eventually return to normal (so do make sure you have permission from anyone whose photo you have taken).

To enter please email your image to boxo΀ce#stamfordartscentre. com or use the hashtag #skdcphoto on Instagram

Poet’s Corner

Many people have had more leisure time during lockdown so have been reading more, and reading poetry has increased in popularity too. This could be because poems can provide great consolation during a crisis as they provide insights into coping with the everyday or the great mysteries of life. But many people are nervous or dismissive of poetry, thinking it’s not for them. If that’s the case we suggest: • If you don’t like a poem, move on, read another. Don’t feel you have to like or understand every one you read. • Read it aloud to feel the rhythm of the language. • It’s not a problem to be solved; a poem is a window, asking you to look at something more closely. • Read, read and read poetry (anthologies are helpful) then write your own to help you understand how poems are put together.