For three days in September, The Chair will become a place to practice Zen Brushwork - a studio, or zendo, where all are welcome. Steve Hopkins and Carolyn Blake, both experienced practitioners of this art form, invite all to share the way of the brush. This is a unique opportunity to learn how to handle the ink, paper and brushes of a traditional Japanese form, and to explore how mind and body is revealed through brushwork. The aim is not to produce a beautiful finished work of art - though that may happen - but to see, through making, into how one is in the world.

Steve and Carolyn have practiced the way of the brush for more than twenty years, working firstly with Terayama Tanchu Sensei both here and in Japan, and subsequently with Tokyo based Sarah Moate Sensei. Together with these teachers they have worked with a number of other Japanese practitioners of associated forms. They practice together in Carolyn’s studio near Hay and regularly offer workshops in different locations.

In September they plan to offer a first day of simple forms - Ensō, the Zen circle, and Mujibo, the zen line, on a drop-in basis. On subsequent days they will offer the opportunity to brush more complex forms, and the chance to work with the techniques of Zen-ga (Zen painting). At the same time as brushing, opportunities to explore breath and body work through gentle exercise, followed by meditation as a way of focusing and calming the mind before practice, will be available. At the heart of practice: clarity, stillness, focus.