The many colours of art

I've always believed everyone has hidden creativity - it only needs an outlet, and a bit of encouragement, to reach its full potential. Sometimes all it takes is a couple of hours each week working to create something.

Artful is where art and mental wellbeing meet. For over a decade I've run art sessions for women — first in the UK, now in Abu Dhabi. No experience needed, and it was never about making something to frame. It's about what happens while your hands are busy and your guard is down.

Most of the women I work with are somewhere in midlife — a season of large, often invisible change. The sessions give that change somewhere to go.

What a session is like

Artful: Exploring Self Through Art is a program-in-development of mindful creative workshop concepts that weave together mindfulness, neuroart, and expressive techniques. The intention is to design thoughtful session plans that are accessible to all skill levels, with the vision of creating supportive, non-judgmental spaces where participants could use art as a tool for reflection, emotional expression, and renewal.

We start slowly, usually with colour and no particular plan. Nothing is critiqued and no drawing skill is required. Some people talk the whole way through; some don't say a word. By the end there is usually something on the paper that surprises the person who made it - and that surprise is the point.

Three programmes, two countries

Breathe Art - UK, 2019

Structured mixed-media workshops for women in my local community. They began as set projects, but over a few months I redesigned the content so that everyone could take an idea and put their own spin on it — that shift, from following to interpreting, changed the room completely. I ran them in a space with a play area for babies and toddlers in the same room, which meant mothers didn't have to arrange childcare to take two hours for themselves. For many, that was the only reason they could come at all.

Creative Mornings - Abu Dhabi, 2021

No curriculum and no theme. Everyone brings whatever they're working on — a painting, some stitching, a half-finished thing that's been sitting at home for months — and we work on it together, alongside conversation and a great deal of coffee. It's become an art club more than a meet-up.

Expressive Art - Abu Dhabi, 2025

A six-week programme, run twice, with mental wellbeing built into the structure rather than added on. Each week had its own theme and technique — intuitive colour, collage, paper stitching, layered mixed media — designed so that the making itself does the work.

A full case study is available on the Expressive Art Page - click on link below.