Better to give than to receive

I'm not allowed to work this year if I want to get student allowance while I study, so I decided I'd do some volunteer work!

I found this great organisation (you can see their website here) called Toi Ora. They hold a range of creative workshops specifically for adults who have/have had issues with mental health.

I've been helping out with the Wednesday afternoon intermediate painting class for the last 4 weeks, and I'm loving it! I led the class for the first time today in a lesson on perspective drawing. The artworks that come out always surprise me and sometimes amaze me! I love how creative we all are, and the different ways we express it. And it feels so fulfilling to be able to share a bit of my knowledge and encourage the students. Some of them will just keep on doing what they want to do no matter what you tell them, but I find this is actually an admirable quality in some ways- they know what they want and won't be swayed from their goal.

One of the artists there is Andrew Blythe, who is a self taught artist. He's recently had a lot of success with selling his paintings internationally and in local Auckland galleries such as Tim Melville.

Here are a few of his works:

They are quite arresting in how they're both raw and delicately intricate. Up close in real life, some of those marks are really tiny! He told me that he was put off the idea of art at a young age, but has recently embraced it again- it just goes to show that you never know how talented you might actually be at something someone told you you were bad at!