STARTS THURSDAY JULY 30TH 6.30PM OR FRIDAY JULY 31ST 9.30AM LIVE ON ZOOM
Learn to love the blank page!
A seven-week sketchbook journey that returns you to the curiosity, courage and creativity of childhood.
If you tell yourself 'I can’t draw'
If your materials are ready but your confidence isn’t
If you're still copying other artists rather than exploring your own ideas
If you love your art class but struggle to get started at home
If your sketchbook sits blank-paged and waiting...
... this programme is for you
"The urge to draw must be quite deep within us because children love to do it.”
David Hockney
Hi, I'm Ali...
… and I’ve been teaching art to children and adults for over a decade. 7:7 grew directly out of what I began to notice during those years.
The children who come to my classes are there because they love art, and because a parent has recognised and supported that passion. They take their place in the class assuming they belong, without doubting their right to be there.
Many adults arrive with a very different internal dialogue. Even when they describe themselves as beginners or hobbyists, they judge their work quickly and harshly, holding themselves to standards they would never apply to a child.
After a while, I noticed a pattern. The barriers adults encounter are rarely about ability. More often they reflect messages absorbed - often unconsciously - early on : messages about mess, about waste, about what being 'good at art' means, about whether it's even a worthwhile pursuit. That realisation led to a simple but powerful idea: what if we started again from the beginning with a different set of messages?
What if - instead of pushing forward -
we went back?
SEVEN WEEKS, SEVEN STAGES, ONE SKETCHBOOK
All humans move through seven recognisable stages of art development. These stages trace a natural arc from early scribbles through to the formation of our unique artistic voice.
Over seven weeks, we return to the beginning and move step by step through that sequence together.
The aim is not to draw like a child, exactly, but - at times - to think like one; to remember what art was for before it became complicated. At other moments, you will step in as an adult and become a mentor to the child artist you once were, offering the encouragement and support that may have been missing the first time round.
Along the way, we explore how great artists from history have drawn from these same developmental modes, and we experiment with borrowing from them too, in ways that clarify our natural artistic leanings and open up new creative possibilities.
"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up'
Pablo Picasso
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