Wellness Wednesday: Art in Nature
Wed, Jul 17
|Graysdale Park
Get Out of Your Head and Into a Tree – Using the tree identification process of drawing and recording patterns as a mindfulness technique. Led by Ann Taylor Schimdt.
Dates & Times
Jul 17, 2024, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Graysdale Park, 880 Grays Woods Blvd, Port Matilda, PA 16870, USA
About the event
Wellness Wednesday: Art in Nature
Presented by Ann Taylor Schmidt
The original date for this program has been changed due to weather. The new date is Wednesday, July 17 from 6:00-8:00 PM at Graysdale Park/Scotia Barrens (same location). Registration is required.
Location: Scotia Barrens
Transportation:
A limited number of van seats are available for this event. You must confirm your registration to this event BEFORE registering for transportation. Reserve A Seat
Program Description:
Join us for Wellness Wednesday: Art in Nature with Ann Taylor-Schmidt! We will have sitting cushions available for this event, but you are welcome to bring a chair if that is more comfortable for experience.
The focus of this program is Get Out of Your Head and Into a Tree: Using the tree identification process of drawing and recording patterns as a mindfulness technique. Spend time with one tree. Learn its secrets. Touch its bark. Report on its leafing and branching patterns. Forget your worries and learn the tree's scars and history. Breath in its oxygen and scent. Draw the leaves, branches and trunk. Do a crayon rubbing of the bark or leaf texture. Explore it and we will learn the questions that need to be answered to help identify the species.
Ann will introduce some drawing techniques, then we will find a tree to focus on. After the one-on-tree session, we will use helpful books, apps and one another to learn more about your tree. You may download one of these apps beforehand: iNaturalist for iOS and android, or Plantnet for android, yet we hope to spend less time on our phone and more time tuned into nature. Observing and asking the right questions is key to this activity and being fully present is our reward.
About Our Instructor:
Ann graduated cum laude with a B.S. in art ed, first teaching elementary art. Then, she worked in the graphic-arts printing industry, continuing to take grad courses, painting and showing. She worked for Penn State marketing communications and public relations, retiring from the University’s StratCom Office of Social Media. Taylor-Schmidt has taught an annual Penn State nature journal drawing workshop for two decades. She has instructed both adult and teen students on her own, and through the Art Alliance. Ann enjoys photography, bonsai and selling her polymer clay art jewelry creations and teaching through her business Ann Taylor-Schmidt Artworks.
Wellness Wednesdays are part of Centred Outdoors' efforts to offer equitable opportunities for outdoor recreation at nearby natural spaces. The series highlights paths to wellness, engages the community, and includes local partners.