Guided by Nature

Guided by Nature Eco-Therapeutic Arts. Nature, Creativity & Wellbeing Sessions. Nature & Health Facilitator Training. Artist exploring the living world through natural pigment.

The courage to stand still.Heulsaf y Gaeaf; The Stand of the Sun in Winter. A soft Solstice morning arriving above the C...
21/12/2025

The courage to stand still.
Heulsaf y Gaeaf; The Stand of the Sun in Winter.
A soft Solstice morning arriving above the Carneddau.

'Being still is not stagnation, it is the quietness required to contemplate what is happening, to approach rhythms, languages and signs, to delve beyond the surface' - Alfonso Masó

Not LandArt so much as a prayerful, ritual of relatedness alongside serious playfulness. The end point of being, noticin...
18/12/2025

Not LandArt so much as a prayerful, ritual of relatedness alongside serious playfulness. The end point of being, noticing, beholding, appreciating, experimenting and collaborating. More and more I am moving towards this kind of arts practice as a form of reciporical eco therapeutic art. For me it's important to leave no trace, every creation must be ethemeral. Will I continue to paint? Do we need more 'stuff' in the world which just replicates what is already there albeit it skillfully? Uuummm maybe using natural pigment, idk. Anyway this is the end result of a week on Mull, wondering, looking, collecting, playing with end of season bracken, uprooted by wind and rain. Mainly intuitive emergence but unsurprised to recognise themes of blackening and decay as I submerge myself in and cherish the darkness. And of course gazing through that circle again! The utter deep!

Hello darkness my old friend.... Bracken stalks uprooted by wind and water, blackening and decaying at their roots. Arra...
18/12/2025

Hello darkness my old friend.... Bracken stalks uprooted by wind and water, blackening and decaying at their roots. Arranged to express seasonal cycles and honour darkness.
..I hear people exclaiming that soon the days will get longer!!! But, its still deep winter isn't it? In reality the days will be lengthening very gradually before March and dawn does not arrive any earlier until after new year. So let's not rush our quiet dreaming. Our techno, patriarchal culture doesn't have the patience for natural gestation, for this deeply feminine time. However it has it's own special power. It truly feels like a luxury but I hope you get the chance to honour this time without having to prematurely push through this season. New life begins in silence and darkness.

To Know the Dark
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light. To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight, and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings, and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. — Wendell Berry.

Into the darkness... Photographs and paintings in progress from time spent at the Geopoetics Scottish Centre A week of w...
15/12/2025

Into the darkness... Photographs and paintings in progress from time spent at the Geopoetics Scottish Centre A week of wild weather, wonderful conversations and wandering in the deep night of winter. Working with natural pigment; charcoal, slate and indigo. Wondering about the initial alchemical state known as 'Nigredo' - Blackness, a time of shadows, dissolution, destruction of old forms prior to transformation. This time before the shortest night feels precious and potent. 'Geopoetics' means the creative expression of the Earth, an influence alongside eco-psychology and animism.

Conversations with Birch. Making marks with an 'other' Birch charcoal ink, with a Birch brush moved by Wind. A new lens ...
04/12/2025

Conversations with Birch. Making marks with an 'other' Birch charcoal ink, with a Birch brush moved by Wind. A new lens with which to view the world.

We are looking forward to offering this three day Threshold course in Eco-psychology in the north of England in 2026 for...
30/11/2025

We are looking forward to offering this three day Threshold course in Eco-psychology in the north of England in 2026 for Natural Academy. Dates to follow. If you are interested in a career in nature based work sign up to the mailing list, link in comments.

Notes from ritual art with Bedwen A***n / Silver Birch in November. ... Working with Birch who.seems both confined but a...
27/11/2025

Notes from ritual art with Bedwen A***n / Silver Birch in November. ... Working with Birch who.seems both confined but also protected by their environment, a gash in the landscape, also a threshold, otherworldly space.
Growing here and adapting - spectacularly contorted.
A coloniser of bare land - harsh places
'Ritual invites us back to the present'.
November the gateway of the Celtic year.
Asks us to 'name the spells that bind us'
Eco - Therapeutic Art - Making charcoal ink; Alchemy & Transformation, crushing and burning, endings becoming something new
The pestle and mortar - a potent symbol of unification, female and male.
Inspired by Environmental Arts Therapy - Ian Siddons Heginworth. And Lindsey Fooks thank you for reminding me about this book, looking forward to following it this year, some really lovely threads in it.

Enoughness..... Oak Gall were my first introduction to natural ink making and my heart still skips a beat when I see the...
24/11/2025

Enoughness..... Oak Gall were my first introduction to natural ink making and my heart still skips a beat when I see their beautiful round bodies on Oak. That tiny hole lets us know that the wasp who lived there has now left but like everything in our eco system there are plenty of other creatures who make good use of a gall. So while a part of me loves to take them home with me, I also know I have enough oak gall to keep me ink making for a while and I don't need to strip every tree for my own uses. Creating natural art materials is about more than just aesthetics. It is a practice that can help us relearn our relationship with the rest of the living world and choose not take more than we need, to respect the limitations and sentience of others. 💚

Looking forward to speaking about my environmental arts practice online with the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics this eve...
20/11/2025

Looking forward to speaking about my environmental arts practice online with the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics this evening! It's a free event so do join us and find about more about the fascinating world of Geopoetics!(Link in comments).... Geopoetics is a movement and a practice — a way of thinking, creating and living in direct relation with the Earth. Rooted in the work of poet and philosopher Kenneth White, it invites us to cross borders of art, science and culture to recover a more vivid, grounded sense of being in the world. To engage in geopoetics is to walk, to listen, to create — through word, image, sound, movement or form — in conversation with wind, stone and wave. It is a path of attention and imagination, cultivating what White called an Open World: a spacious awareness where creativity and knowledge, intellect and landscape, return once again to a radical field.

Another day at Old Mill Arts. Lucy and Edward have been so generous with their time and knowledge. I have learnt how to ...
19/11/2025

Another day at Old Mill Arts. Lucy and Edward have been so generous with their time and knowledge. I have learnt how to achieve things using natural pigments and binders that I didn't know were possible! They really know their stuff and I can see how much experimentation, effort and love of materials has gone into them developing the craft of artisan paint and ink making. Feeling excited about getting home and trying all that I have learnt with all my pigments.

Happy days with pigment people. Finally made the long trek up to Dumfries for mentoring with Old Mill Arts. Great to spe...
18/11/2025

Happy days with pigment people. Finally made the long trek up to Dumfries for mentoring with Old Mill Arts. Great to spend time with Lucy and Edward who know so much about working with both earth pigment and plant pigment! So much to learn and discuss with like-minded folk who have also fallen through the portal into pigment paradise. Much respect for their integrity and ethics around relating with pigment and knowing the provenance and impact of the materials they work with and aiming for a good balance. Feeling excited to share what I am learning here at home in North Wales.

Today I received the news that I had a second funding application rejected.... it's very competitive and annoyingly time...
17/11/2025

Today I received the news that I had a second funding application rejected.... it's very competitive and annoyingly time consuming doing these applications and the thing is with the pigment and nature connection work it's about so much more than just the aesthetic. I do really believe and know from experience working with local natural pigment has the power to change how we make art and how we relate to the natural world to make us all more thoughtful, more conscious of how we behave and teach us how to relate deeply with the pigments themselves. Anyhow as with the road closed signs I kept hitting today I will just find a new way round. In this case I parked the car up and walked to Shap Abbey, on an unexpected detour. The wonder of the natural world and the more than human just stopped me in my tracks and asks me to pay full attention to the beauty of it all. The winter sun brings everything alive. I met an erratic boulder who is said to have been part of a neolithic processional avenue, saw the first frosts, bright red hawthorn berries glowing bright, little webs shining in the setting sun, long tall shadows. Blew me away and keeps my spirits up as always.

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Who we are and what we do

Living Bridge Community Interest Company (CIC)

Based in the Calder Valley in West Yorkshire, we are a small collective of experienced therapists and mental health professionals with a passionate belief in the transformative healing power of the ‘great outdoors’. We have created the Living Bridge CIC to be a conduit between nature-based practitioners such as ourselves and people and groups interested in exploring how spending time in the living world can enhance mental health and well being of individuals and communities.

We work with people on a range of activities and workshops designed to enhance connection to the environment and the sense of belonging to place. This can help improve mood, reduce stress, anxiety and loneliness, provide support with bereavement and loss and cultivate greater emotional resilience.

Underpinning everything we do is our desire to provide an experience of the joy of reforging a personal, close and life-time relationship with nature, often lost or sidelined by the pressures of modern day living.