Art With Jess

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Art With Jess

Hello, I’m Jess, I’m an abstract artist and freelance art coordinator working with groups and 1:1.

My practice focuses on expressionism through therapeutic frameworks, that help towards mental health and self-reflection.

25/03/2026

✨BEING PRESENT - with a viewfinder ✨

I got the guys at Talk About It Mate to draw my beautiful girls (plants) but using a view finder to go along with the theme of being present.

As an artist, I know how hard it is to create, the perfectionists tendencies, repeating “I can’t” do this and that, but after further discussion with the guys, this nifty technique helped them feel more relaxed in the creative process!

The viewfinder narrows your attention, blocks out distractions and limits what you see. Instead of being overwhelmed by an entire scene, you’re only focusing on a small section. That naturally pulls your attention into the here and now.

24/03/2026

✨BEING PRESENT ✨

It’s hard to be present in this day and age, it’s hard just slowing down, and feeling what you feel, mentally and bodily. There’s always a rush, a rush to look after others, clean up some mess, do the laundry, write the letter but never slowing down and tuning into your present self.

I asked Talk About It Mate guys to take a minute to be present, and be in-tuned with their mind and body and to express it. And I think they did a wonderful job.

One of the guys (first image) was asked why he did the colours in columns, he said because that’s the sequence my moods go in, anger, envy, happiness and the blues. Within further analyses he admitted to putting on a brave happy face, when in actuality he is angry, and it’s quite fitting how the red column sweeps into the yellow, subconsciously of course.

Action drawing or painting can really expose a lot about oneself if you just allow yourself to feel and be present and of course be creative!

21/03/2026

🌿 Mindful Leisure🌿

Lately I’ve been trying to incorporate mindfulness in my day to day, I don’t like sitting in silence being “mindful” because I do everything but, however, I have a misconception of what mindfulness is meant to be. Zen🧘‍♀️ crossed legged, breathing, not for me.

Come to realise the term “mindful leisure” which is being mindful in the things you enjoy, so in this case, painting.

Painting grass can become a deeply therapeutic process when in conjunction with mindfulness and presence. As you focus on each brushstroke the variation of greens, the texture of the blades, the way light falls across the surface you naturally slow down and anchor yourself in the present moment.

This attentive observation quiets mental noise and reduces stress, allowing your mind to rest from overthinking about the past or future. The repetitive, rhythmic motion of painting can feel meditative, gently regulating your breathing and grounding your body.

Over time, this mindfulness not only enhances artistic sensitivity but also fosters emotional balance, helping you feel more connected, calm, and aware of the subtle beauty in ordinary moments.

16/03/2026

🐛The Hungry Caterpillar 🐛

Eric Carle is one of the most profound children’s authors known for creative narratives with brightly textured creatures, but what is less known is, is how he creates them. Eric Carle uses painted swatches and combines through collage with tissue paper, coloured paper and scissors. , simple right?

And this is what I got the guys from Talk About It Mate to do, but instead of creating a creature, to create a landscape instead. Creating various textured colour swatches and create a composition that resembles a landscape.

Collage is an effective way of being innovative especially when you struggle with being creative!
It relieves the pressure of having any artistic skill like painting or drawing tends to have. But from a mental health point of view, it can reroute the mind to focusing on what’s wrong, to focusing on the potential all whilst getting messy!

13/03/2026

GRIEF (Part 3)

Another thought provoking session today with Talk About It Mate in Eccles. This being the final session on grief really showed me how different we all are, our backgrounds, our cultures, our experiences and especially towards grief, and how hard it is to distinguish and sometimes recognise.

For the final session I got the guys to visually explore emotions connected to the 5 stages of grief - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Determining how they show up through expression, different scenarios within grief as the 5 stages, and making abstract feelings visible.

The second activity I got the guys to portray grief as a character or if grief was an object what would it be.

The pictures don’t do the groups justice as it’s the discussions and the warmth of support for one another which is truly amazing, hard topics, but I know you guys are resilient enough individually and as a group to get through it! 🤜

In loving memory of the members, volunteers and supporters of Talk About It, Mate that sadly passed away- Graham, Darren(Daz), Paul and Barry 💛

04/03/2026

GRIEF - Part 2

Another difficult topic with the guys at Talk About It Mate
yesterday discussing grief and how grief can be symbolised, either abstractually, objects, colours and mark makings.

A lot of the time I get “it’s just a picture; doesn’t mean anything “ until you ask and it opens an array of symbolism. The chaotic spiral is the sense of feeling out of control, the collage that’s missing a piece is something that doesn’t feel right, and the darkness is being completely isolated.

Whilst asking the guys to symbolise grief, I also asked them to on the same images to add something that represents support or resilience.

So now an out of control spiral, becomes a playful colour wheel, the out of place collage becomes hopeful within a helping hand, and the isolated darkness becomes a community of support.

Moral of the post: . “Grief doesn’t shrink when you ignore it - it softens when you let yourself feel it”. So allow yourself permission to feel.

In loving memory of the members, volunteers and supporters of Talk About It, Mate that sadly passed away- Graham, Darren(Daz), Paul and Barry 💛

23/02/2026

GRIEF

First day back with Talk About It Mate
and with the new year just behind us it made me think about the “new year new me” slogan. Do we every year grieve the “old “ us for the new one? Can one grieve over a future or career we thought we wanted?

A tough topic for sure, but a valuable one and I appreciate all the guys being so vulnerable with me toward this topic. Grief doesn’t always correlate with death it can refer to a loss of a relationship, loss of identity, health changes, life transitions, missing or lost dreams/careers.

The conversations revolving round this shown strength, vulnerability and resilience. I asked the guys to creatively demonstrate what grief feels like - the pic shown above, shows a honey badger.

The honey badger is one of the most fearless creatures on earth, and after plenty of discussion of this image “resilience” kept popping up. The second half was to represent what’s left - which was a a hole left behind.

Moral of the post: Allow yourself to be vulnerable, it’s okay to miss things that were once there or were what you wanted in the past or even wish you had. Grief helps you process reality, honour attachments/ connectivity and deepens your sense of meaning.

27/01/2026

TURN OFF YOUR WIFI

My WiFi spontaneously cut out yesterday and my first thought was OMG now what??? Until I realised I have free will, and as a creative who has multiple resources to create with, but I kept it simple.

I quick sketched with the technique “Hirameki” and this was the result.

It made me realise that we all (including myself) spend far too much time on technology and not enough creating, and I don’t mean creating in the sense of a masterpiece, meant for galleries, but creating for the sake of creating.

Moral of the post; turn your WiFi off for an hour and see where your creativity takes you - don’t be a slave to technology

19/11/2025

✨Together we create celebration ✨

Last night we had a wonderful celebration to mark the 25th anniversary of Lowry. A celebration of creativity and community within 11 amazing groups from Salford.

I was in absolute awe with how passionate the groups were, showing their community through acting, dancing, music, sound, poetry and Art.

Organisations like these help so many vulnerable people everyday and give so much back through educational training, volunteer opportunities, creative enterprises and the warmth of friendship!

The wonderful organisations are:

✨Comedy Stitch CIC
✨Community Doosti (friendship)
✨Community Pride CIC
✨Community support centre
✨Jaks World Charity
✨LusoconnectionUk CIC
✨Salford Arts Theatre
✨Steppingstone creative
✨Talk about it Mate
✨Tatton Community Hub (tatty kids drama club)
✨Women with Wings

I’m so proud of the guys from Talk About It Mate with participating in the “through my eyes “ Lowry inspired project!

The artworks are absolutely wonderful, this project is a reminder that mens mental health deserves visibility, mens emotions deserve space. And mens stories deserve to be told openly, bravely and creatively! Loved seeing your guys again 💛

29/09/2025

SLOW DOWN

Went on an amazing mushroom foraging experience to get my mind off creating absolutely nothing with my time away, and to overcome creative block - and to my surprise it did just that.

This is what I created from that experience alone and I realised having time away, experiences that may seem away from being creative can actually stir creativity.

Claude Monet found influence with his water garden in Giverny, Normandy. Van Gogh was influenced by life itself with his sunflowers and people working.

Being creative is HARD. And it’s hard to be creative every minute of everyday because the truth is, daily life isn’t that inspiring, but finding the beauty of the everyday requires slowing down to observe it in real time.

Moral of the post; Slow down, be grounded, be grateful for the people in your life and allow life, places, people, conversations, feelings etc to influence you.

01/09/2025

New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” - Lao Tzu

Recently I haven’t been feeling myself, personally and creatively.

Since I’m slowly heading towards 30 I’m thinking a lot about what do I want to do with my life, how do I stop feeling so left behind. Do I want to be an artist anymore, do I even have an identity as an artist since I don’t actively create nor have motivation to create. High expectations from others, networking is bleak, sometimes uncomfortable, how many followers do I have, how can I monetise this, not everything has to be monetised, but how do I stay relevant but genuine?

“Existential crisis “ I say dramatically.

So the picture of my plant is quite fitting. I tried to propagate my Begonia plant from neglect, scared it would never grow back again - until it did.

It came back healthier, thriving even, and now I have 2 thriving Begonias.

Moral of the post: It’s okay to be scared for the future, hesitant even, but be excited for it- for you’re not going to get told you’re living your best years until after you’ve lived them, and they at one point started off as something to be scared of.

block

29/07/2025

🖌️Lowry Project - Guess & Draw 🖌️

Lovely last session with Talk About It Mate exploring Lowry’s 25th anniversary through explorative drawing, looking at influences, techniques, stylistics, emotional expression and lastly the QUIZ.

Although I got the guys to explore their own interpretation of a lowrys drawing in groups, with different interpretations, the last half of the session I wanted to see how much everyone remembered Lowrys life throughout the project.

Well done “red lips” ( group name) and better look next time “matchstick men” (group name) 👎 I loved this time with you guys, all the best ❤️

PART OF -
* A project delivered by Lowry in partnership with Salford CVs and made possible thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund

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https://www.instagram.com/abstractartjessica/

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