Creative Mess Workshop with Chris Small at Wirrealpa Station in the Flinders Ranges
$490 per person, price includes tuition, materials, accommodation and all meals. Minimum 4, maximum 10.
Immerse yourself in the colour and beauty of the Flinders Ranges on Adnyamathanha Country and explore an abstract expression of the shapes, textures and emotions you experience. It will be fun, messy, and you may even learn something about yourself.
Chris Small with a work in progress
Friday Evening
Arrival time is from 3.00 pm, allowing time for you to settle in and explore the immediate environment.
5.00 pm we will gather together and talk about how we will be spending the next two days together
6.00 pm we will enjoy bubbles (alcoholic of non-alcoholic options) with the station managers while we enjoy the desert sunset
7.00 pm we will dine together in the shearer’s mess
Photo by Sam Standley, Wirrealpa views
Saturday morning
7.30-8.30 am Breakfast
9.30 am - 12.30 pm workshop (morning tea within this time when it feels appropriate)
We will start by taking a walk around the local landscape to help to ground us, connecting to the nature and colours around us. You will be able to collect bits of nature to inspire you while you create. Then the fun starts! We will make a mess on the canvas using a range of materials. Explore the way that the different mediums interact with each other. During the workshop Chris will talk about how developing a relationship with your creative piece is an integral part of the process. By focusing on what is in front of you, having moments of making choices, the feel of making the marks, of using different tools, of seeing how colours bounce off each other. While we create, we will provide a space for a relaxed yarn that will explore what this means to us in our lives, and what it tells us about ourselves.
Chris Small Art, Fire Season, oil and mixed media on canvas
Saturday afternoon
12.30 pm - 1.30 pm Lunch
2.00 pm - 5.00 pm (afternoon tea within this time when it feels appropriate)
After a delicious lunch, Chris will guide you to will take the visual chaos you have created from the morning and use a variety of tools to start to find parts of the mess to keep, and what to let go. We will explore what to cover up, what to expose; what to layer with something new and what to scratch back. You will be able to draw and paint shapes with paints, pastels, and scratching tools. This process will create something brand new out of the mess, while keeping the mess underneath. This process will include discussions/musings about how the seemingly inconsequential decisions we make in the creative process might help us have insight into our decision-making processes more broadly. Chris will share some of her story to illustrate and open the conversation up to the way creative processes can shape the way we operate in our lives and the world. At the end of this session, you will be encouraged to notice how you feel about your creative experience.
Sunday morning
7.30-8.30 am Breakfast
9.30 am - 12.30 pm we will visit a beautiful local site, stopping for morning tea
Photo by Sam Standley, Lizard Rock, Wirrealpa Station
Sunday afternoon
12.30 pm - 1.30 pm Lunch
2.00 pm - 5.00 pm (afternoon tea within this time when it feels appropriate)
In our last session, you will be invited to share your thoughts about your work so far and to look at your work with fresh eyes, connecting with how you feel about the work, and adding your final layer or embellishments. Chris will provide a space for you to explore how the mindfulness and momentary nature of the process of creating is an activity that can improve our sense of wellness. She will explain the nature of her relationship with her creative pieces of work and how this is integral to her process.
Monday morning
7.30-8.30 am Breakfast
Pack up and check out by 10.00 am
Photo by Sam Standley, wild budgerigars (and zebra finch), Wirrealpa Station
What’s included?
All materials (paints, canvas, stencils, brushes - please bring your own if you have favourites)
All meals, Friday evening through to Monday morning
Accommodation Friday 30th June 3:00 pm to Monday 3rd July 10:00am
A Creative Mess by You canvas to take home
What should I bring?
Comfortable clothes and shoes for walking and that you don't mind getting messy
A waterproof and windproof jacket
Bring layers because it will be cold at night
About Chris Small
Chris is a practicing abstract artist with a micro-business called Chris Small Art. Chris has a 25 year background working in social services with people who have experienced trauma, as well as having lived experience of trauma including surviving domestic and sexual violence. Although she is not trained formally in therapy and is not able to provide therapeutic support, she will provide a safe environment for people with these histories.
Please make contact with Chris on chrissmallart@gmail.com, via Instagram or Facebook messaging if you would like to talk with her before attending. Chris will then share her phone number with you so you can talk with her if that's more comfortable for you.
Chris Small Art, Shore Hugging the Sea’, oil, mixed media on canvas, 120 x 120cm, Centre for Creative Health exhibition November ‘22 to April ‘23, Royal Adelaide Hospital
Accommodation
We will be staying at the beautiful, rustic Wirrealpa shearer’s quarters, 40 minutes east of Blinman in the Flinders Ranges. We will be booking one bedroom per person unless you wish to share with a friend. There are shared bathroom facilities.
Photo by Sam Standley, Wirrealpa station bordering Ikara-Flinders Ranges
Photos by Sam Standley. Wirrealpa Shearer’s Quarters accommodation, kitchen, dining and buildings.
For this workshop, we will accommodate one person per room, unless you opt to share with a friend or partner.