convened by Ellen Cohen, and facilitated by Helen Meads and Andrea ?, the artist with the pink hair, (published in May 2016 Southern East Anglia Area Quaker Meeting Newsletter).
Well, it wasn’t billed as "Experiment with Light" but rather, as in the terms below, as a day of silent mediation:
"To wait in the Light is an invitation to all and of benefit to all regardless of lack of experience. During the day we shall have periods of silence including lunch and also time to reflect, express and share our retreat experience."
In fact, it was more like Experiment with Paint, which, again, seemed to take a number of retreatants by surprise.
I enjoyed it hugely and am proud of my painting. The most valuable part of the day, for me, was the contemplation period of silence followed by the opportunity for visual self-expression.
As was said during the concluding remarks –
1. Many of us appreciated the way the meditation was 'led', in that Helen Meads punctuated the silence every few minutes with a sentence or phrase taken from George Fox's writings about The Light. This gave the meditation, which was under an hour long, some shape and direction and even purpose. (I'd love to see the script.)
2. Sitting in one large circle throughout the plenary sessions was a refreshing change from our standard Sunday worship practice of sitting in rows.
3. The preparatory period before the silence to practise with the pastels and inks was important in that it enabled people to familiarise themselves with the oil-resist technique and loosen up their painting skills.
4. It was remarkable that there were so few men: 20 women and 3 men.
To these remarks I'd add the following:
1. It would have been better during the 'worship sharing' sessions (see QF&P 12:21 for the initiated) to have actually had our paintings in the session when we talked about them.
2. It was a shame that the flipchart with the timetable on it was rarely in the same room as the people who wanted to refer to it and find out what was happening when. A minor grumble and easily solvable next time, I hope.
3. The session after the meditation and before lunch, about 20 minutes, was a bit weird and aimless in my opinion, and I wandered around the Meeting House feeling a bit like a spare part and wondering if others felt the same.
4. As someone who has led art workshops in the past, I have great admiration for the ease with which Andrea prepared us and the James Parnell room and laid out the space and materials for a score of people to work on quite a large scale (A2 size paintings) without mess or mishap.
To conclude, then, many thanks to Ellen and her fellow Experiment with Lighters, and to the 3 outside facilitators. I hope Ellen can pass this on as the constructive feedback that it is meant to be, to the facilitators.
"To wait in the Light is an invitation to all and of benefit to all regardless of lack of experience. During the day we shall have periods of silence including lunch and also time to reflect, express and share our retreat experience."
In fact, it was more like Experiment with Paint, which, again, seemed to take a number of retreatants by surprise.
I enjoyed it hugely and am proud of my painting. The most valuable part of the day, for me, was the contemplation period of silence followed by the opportunity for visual self-expression.
As was said during the concluding remarks –
1. Many of us appreciated the way the meditation was 'led', in that Helen Meads punctuated the silence every few minutes with a sentence or phrase taken from George Fox's writings about The Light. This gave the meditation, which was under an hour long, some shape and direction and even purpose. (I'd love to see the script.)
2. Sitting in one large circle throughout the plenary sessions was a refreshing change from our standard Sunday worship practice of sitting in rows.
3. The preparatory period before the silence to practise with the pastels and inks was important in that it enabled people to familiarise themselves with the oil-resist technique and loosen up their painting skills.
4. It was remarkable that there were so few men: 20 women and 3 men.
To these remarks I'd add the following:
1. It would have been better during the 'worship sharing' sessions (see QF&P 12:21 for the initiated) to have actually had our paintings in the session when we talked about them.
2. It was a shame that the flipchart with the timetable on it was rarely in the same room as the people who wanted to refer to it and find out what was happening when. A minor grumble and easily solvable next time, I hope.
3. The session after the meditation and before lunch, about 20 minutes, was a bit weird and aimless in my opinion, and I wandered around the Meeting House feeling a bit like a spare part and wondering if others felt the same.
4. As someone who has led art workshops in the past, I have great admiration for the ease with which Andrea prepared us and the James Parnell room and laid out the space and materials for a score of people to work on quite a large scale (A2 size paintings) without mess or mishap.
To conclude, then, many thanks to Ellen and her fellow Experiment with Lighters, and to the 3 outside facilitators. I hope Ellen can pass this on as the constructive feedback that it is meant to be, to the facilitators.
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