Prompted by Nature

Hello! 

Welcome to series 2, episode 8 of Prompted by Nature. I hope you’re well! This week it feels like the weather has turned down here on the South Coast, with the first frost arrived a few days ago and the temperature taking a dip. I’m personally loving it as I adore the long nights and frosty mornings. We’ve just gone into lockdown again here in England so all but my online and one-to-one work is off so I’m getting stuck into more writing and taking any opportunity to keep myself well by getting outside. 

So today, you’ll be hearing my conversation with the wonderful Punam Sanghrajka, a modern abstract nature artist inspired by her Kenyan roots. I first came across Punam’s art on Instagram and was immediately taken by the overall mood of her feed - soft, gentle and calming, with some of the most beautiful sky and seascapes I’ve seen

As a child, Punam was surrounded by beautiful scenery, breathtaking nature and colours you can only imagine and this influences everything she creates as she brings the simplicity but boldness of colour into her work. Punam believes that Nature has the wonderful ability to transport the viewer away from everyday life and into their own magical space and her aim is to help you feel a little of the magic that Kenya & the African landscape gave me. As you’ll hear, Punam works in a way that she calls ‘structured abstract’ and works with brushes and palette knives, using colour and texture to bring the work to life. When you see her work, Punam wants you to take a moment and get lost in what you see. To stop, take a breath and let a memory come to life… Something from your childhood, a moment shared with a loved one, a holiday, anything that allows you to take a step back from your everyday life and pause. She wants you to feel nostalgic for something special – just like she does when she’s creating.

In this conversation we discuss:

For me, this conversation was such a tonic for the times that we’re in right now. Punam’s words reminded me to slow down and appreciate what’s above my head, not just beneath my feet.

You can Punam on the squares @artbypunam or on her website www.artbypunam.com where you can buy her work and enquire about a commission. She’s currently selling some beautiful winter-inspired wooden hangings and I highly recommend getting lost for a bit in her gorgeous work.

As always, I’m @prompted.by.nature on Insta and www.promptedbynature.co.uk where you can find more information about my new online nature-inspired meditation and creative writing sessions, which happen every Monday. You can find all the details for that in the events section of the website - I hope you can join me! I’ve also opened up some one-to-one slots if you are local and want to get outside and creating with me. Just pop to the ‘work with me’ section on my website for more information.

Remember to stick around until after the episode when I’ll give you a hint at the meditation and writing prompt that follows this conversation. Happy listening, and I’ll speak to you after.

A solo episode in which I discuss my own creative exhaustion and just some of the ways I help my body and mind recover from the times when I've pushed them just that little bit too hard!

I have a new weekly online nature-inspired meditation and writing session starting every Monday 8-9.15pm.  More information here:  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nature-inspired-meditation-and-creative-writing-class-tickets-127694857757 

Find me on Instagram @prompted.by.nature or on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk

Happy writing!  Helen x

A short episode in which I talk about the concept of art as play as it relates to your own creativity and how you might like to take the playful approach to your art.

Enjoy!

Helen x

www.promptedbynature.co.uk

www.instagram.com/prompted.by.nature

Hello! Welcome to series 2 episode 6 of Prompted by Nature, I hope this one finds you well. In this episode, I’m speaking with the lovely Beca Beeby, a nature-inspired ceramics and jewellery designer. I first came across Beca’s work on a wild food-related facebook group and immediately asked her to be a guest as her work is incredible and entirely unique.

Beca’s work has a highly aesthetic component which is juxtaposed with the thoughts behind it: her work tending to sit precariously on that faint, wobbly line between ‘Art’ & ‘Craft’: her jewellery and ceramics are wearable sculptures, or ‘useful sculptures’ and an attempt to share my awe with others.

An obsession with a certain repeating morphogenetic pattern, or occurrence, termed ‘three way junctions’ by the Natural Scientist and Mathematician D’arcy Thompson in 1912, that she began noticing years ago, has inspired the majority of what Beca does. Se believes that this is an unappreciated phenomenon, which, as well as being the strongest and most economical way of using any material, it is also the most beautiful (in my view!).

Beca’s hope is that her work could be thought hewn from the earth, to have grown at the bottom of the sea, emerged from a cocoon or constructed by a society of huge insects. Usually made in metal: Steel, copper, brass., bronze and silver, she also works in porcelain and stoneware clays, wax, lime/limecrete and biomaterials. Beca utilises plants and insects in her work, making sculptural pieces to ‘deform’ plants natural growth patterns or placing objects in her honeybee hives, encouraging them to build ‘wild’ honeycomb’ to use, and experimenting with Mycelium and ‘mycotecture’ -the use of mycelium in building structures and objects. Experimentation is a huge part of her practice, each piece of work inspiring and informing the next.

In this conversation, we discuss:

I highly recommend going to Beca’s website and looking at her beautiful work - I have my eye on one of her wild honeycomb bracelets - it’s just stunning!

You can find Beca on her website www.becabeeby.com or on @becabeeby

As always, I’m on www.promptedbynature.co.uk or on instagram @prompted.by.nature Remember to leave five-stars and a review if you can and stick around until the end of the episode when I’ll give you a little insight into the meditation and writing prompt that follows this. Happy listening and I’ll speak to you after.

————————-

Gorgeous, wasn’t she? In the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode, we’ll be drawing on the idea of art and creativity as play. Happy writing and I’ll speak to you soon!

Hello!  In this meditation and writing prompt you will be guided through a breathing practice designed to move out of the 'fight or flight' state and into the 'rest and digest' state of the nervous system.

We begin by focusing in on the breath and encouraging it to slow down and then move through the senses (sound, touch, smell and sight) to engage fully with the nature around us.

You can do this indoors or outdoors but it's designed to use in an outdoor setting in your garden, on a balcony or in a local green space in which you feel safe.  Remember to have a comfortable something to sit on and bring your notebook and a pen!

Please feel free to share your writing with me by contacting me through my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk/contact or over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature

Happy writing!

Helen x

Hello, my love! Welcome to series 2 episode 5 of Prompted by Nature.

This week, I speak with Nick Hayes, author of the amazing new book Book of Trespass. Nick Hayes works as both an author and illustrator, and can convey an incredible amount of emotional context with a few very expressive images. Quiet and spare or bold and busy, all of his work comes across as thoughtful and sensitive. Nick specialises in providing lino prints, conceptual work and traditional illustrations for the children’s publishing, newspaper and magazine industries and he worked with Penguin Random House, The Guardian, New Statesman, British Council, Radio Times.

A little on the Book of Trespass: The vast majority of England is out-of-bounds. By law of trespass, we are excluded from 92 per cent of its land and 97 per cent of its waterways, blocked by walls whose legitimacy is rarely questioned. In The Book of Trespass, Nick Hayes takes us on an expansive journey over the walls of England, into the thousands of square miles of rivers, woodland, lakes and meadows that are blocked from public access. By trespassing the land of the media magnates, Lords, politicians and private corporations that own England, he offers a passionate defence of the natural world and reveals the real story behind its KEEP OUT signs. Packed with shocking statistics and weaving together the stories of poachers, gypsies, witches, ravers, migrants, ramblers, naturalists and campaigners, The Book of Trespass is a vivid exploration of the ownership of England, and a defence of everybody's right to access its great outdoors. Nick passionately believes that the great outdoors should be for everyone and can talk about the political, historical and social dimensions of unequal ownership of land, as well as his campaigning for land reform and his own trespassing tales from across the UK.

In this conversation, we discuss:

And 90s Eddie Izzard comedy even gets a mention!

With everything happening over at Benfield right now, this was a topic close to my heart so it was great to chat to Nick about land and our access to it in this way. And while we’re on the subject of Benfield Valley, I wrote an open letter to my local MPs and planning committee last week so if you’d like to have a read and take inspiration from it for your own letter of protest, it’s int he writing section of my website - link in show notes.

You can find Nick over on his Instagram @nickhayesillustrationr and can buy Book of Trespass published by Bloomsbury anywhere you get your books - although always try and buy from an independent seller!  you can find out about the Right to Roam campaign over on Nick's website www.righttoroam.org.uk.

As always, you can find me over on insta @prompted.by.nature or on my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk

Remember to stick around until the end where I’ll share the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode. Happy listening and I’ll speak to you after.

Hello!  

I thought I'd share something a little different for this prompt - a 'minisode', if you will!  

In this prompt, I give you a few ideas for turning your trash to treasure.  If you'd like to share any ideas with me, I'm always @prompted.by.nature on Instagram or you can contact me via my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk

Take care and I'll speak to you soon!

Helen x

Hello and welcome to episode four, series two of Prompted by Nature. I’m really excited about releasing this absolutely fascinating interview on sustainability in tech and engineering with Eco-designer, Engineer and constant questioner Erica Purvis.

Erica does so much in her arena and set up as TechnicalNature, an independent design hub, 6 years ago to explore and question the “evolving role of a designer in a world that doesn’t really need more stuff”. She collaborates across sectors, business, NGO’s, policy and community, to inspire, connect and support taking creative action for people and planet though various “levers for change.”

As TechnicalNature she blends all of her experiences, perspectives and disciplines to “Cultivate Considered Design and Tech for Life – often working with electronic and product based organisations, accelerators and startups to seed ideas, build ecodesign and circular knowledge and develop holistic sustainability strategies that dig deeper into the root cause of problems and systems. A lot of her recent work has been on the growing global issue of e-waste.

Erica co-founded the Open Source Circular Economy Days a global campaign and practical action hub exploring and championing the role of open source in circular design. She has also published research on the role of “circular makespaces for redistributed manufacturing” and was on the drafting committee for the BSI 8001 Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organisations. Most recently she has contributed to a book on the circular economy and design coming out in Brazil later in the year: https://www.sympla.com.br/circular-economy---global-discussion-brazillian-learning__980782?token=39f3b7e2d0e7021396803a4990a67720

Erica volunteers and champions great things going on in the local Reading area where she now lives, involved with bring the local community energy scheme Reading Hydro CBS to life and co-founding the Circular Economy Club in Reading. She is also an Environmenstrual ambassador and edits the London area Pituitary Foundation newsletter.

In this conversation, we discuss:

You can find Erica over on her website www.technicalnature.org.uk and on Instagram and Twitter @technicalnature

You can find me over on Insta @prompted.by.nature or on the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk

Happy listening!  Helen x

In this meditation and writing prompt you are invited to engage with your imagination through the senses and the visualisation of a path.  You are invited to create a description of the path and the creatures, nature, life that you encounter as you walk along it, tell the stories of this creatures or something completely different.

As always, place no judgements or expectations on your creativity and the way in which it comes through.  Enjoy the process!  Enjoy the path!

And if you'd like to share any of your writing with me, you can contact me via the website www.promptedbynature.co.uk or find me on Instagram @prompted.by.nature

Happy writing!

Helen x

Welcome to series 2 episode 3 of Prompted by Nature!  In this episode I speak with Lorraine Tindale, a nature-based EMDR therapist.

Lorraine is a warm, approachable, caring and supportive trauma-focused BACP, EMDR & UKCP Accredited Psychotherapist with over 16 years of counselling and psychotherapy experience specialising in trauma and PTSD symptoms that are co-morbid with anxiety, abuse, anger management, depression, dissociation, intimacy. Lorraine offers her clients a safe and confidential, often outdoor, counselling space in which they can explore their feelings of pain and distress freely without being judged.   Lorraine believes that you know what you want from therapy and "what hurts and where your difficulties lie,” so together with her clients, Lorraine works at their pace and helping to resolve problems and trauma.  Much of Lorraine’s work takes place outside through walking therapy as she believes strongly in the therapeutic benefits and liberating effects of nature, walking and the outdoors.

In this conversation, we discuss:

Lorraine also tried out the technique on me (and I’m sure I did it wrong!) and, actually, wasn’t sure if I should leave this in but I decided I would as it demonstrates how Lorraine works and her nurturing, highly knowledgable way. Lorraine really is the epitome of practising what she preaches and I can only imagine how wonderful she is as a therapist. This was our second attempt at recording as we had connection issues the day before so I’m very grateful to Lorraine for taking the time to record a second attempt. I also learnt that she’s an absolute hoot and such great company on a personal level!

You can find Lorraine over on her website www.lorrainetindale.com where you can also read about her practice and research on nature-based EMDR, her upcoming camino retreats for EMDR therapists and practitioners and therapeutic clients with PTSD comorbid syptoms such as anxiety panics disorders, intimacy and self-esteem. I loved reading about these retreats on her website as, as she discusses in the conversation, this was something she was hoping to create and it’s wonderful to see it coming to fruition!

As always, you can find me at www.promptedbynature.co.uk or over on Instagram @prompted.by.nature If you’re local to Brighton and Hove, my small group outdoor meditation and writing sessions are now under way in the gorgeous Stanmer Park Woods and at my beloved Benfield Valley. Pop over to the events page on my website to find out more about those.

And if you’ve enjoyed this or any other episode please do subscribe and review the podcast as it really does help push these voices and stories out to a wider audience.

Remember to stay around until the end of the conversation to hear about the meditation and writing prompt that follows this.

Enjoy the conversation and I’ll speak to you after!