Connect Back to Centre

This tool was developed as part of Cultural Cwtsh, which was an online creative wellbeing hub for the health and care workforce in Wales, created by the Arts Council of Wales in collaboration with artists across the country.

In partnership with the Arts Council of Wales, we’re excited to share this mental wellbeing tool, alongside with many other creative resources, with everyone in Wales!

Making art with your eyes closed!

I am a painter, specialising in female portraiture, but I also love to draw, collage, print sometimes and play with clay.

In the three videos presented here, I have selected some of my favourite activities to destress and connect back to centre.

The first is ‘Abstract art made easy – making art with your eyes closed!’

It involves getting comfortable, perhaps to your favourite piece of music, closing your eyes and allowing your hand to wander over a page with a pencil. You just let any shapes emerge and stop when it feels right.

Take a few colours and begin to add some colour to your shapes, modifying as you wish.

The second is papier mâché. This technique helps you connect back to an easier time, childhood, when life was simpler. Remember that squidgey feeling of news paper pulp in wallpaper paste? We can do papier mâché as adults too.

All you need is newspaper, white PVA glue, some objects to use as moulds and cling film – to stop the mould sticking to the papier mâché.

The beauty of this technique is that you can make almost anything, and once it’s painted no one will ever know it’s humble papier mâché.

It’s great for wellbeing, as you do it in stages and see your artwork develop.

The third video is about playing with clay. In the video, I show you how to make a ‘pinch pot’ which requires no tools – you just mould and shape with your hands. I hope this inspires you to create other objects. Air drying clay is widely available form most craft shops and is very inexpensive, so please do give it a go.

Alongside my studio practice, I work in schools and in the community. I love working with children and supporting them to make art.

Currently my work is around female portraiture. On my mind at the moment is the absence of women of colour on gallery walls, in arts books, in children’s books, in history… I would like to address this in my work.

Prith Biant
Visual Artist