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.

25/04/2026

Yesterday with Talk About It Mate we explored bilateral drawing and drawing in silly ways. Using both hands, crossing the page, and letting go of “doing it right” helped shift the focus from pressure to play.

I’ve done this exercise with other groups from langworthy, and Walkden and decided to do it again with Eccles, an oldy but goodie.

Reason being, is art can be intimidating, especially being thrown in the deep end, but what people don’t understand is being creative is to explore playfulness, being curious and being silly in the name of art.

Bilateral movement can feel grounding, while silly drawing helps challenge self-judgment and perfectionism.

Sometimes wellbeing grows through movement, humour, and giving yourself permission to be imperfect.

Moral of the post: Be silly, have a laugh and see where it takes you

21/04/2026

✨ 👎 to 👍 ✨

The second half of Tuesdays session with Talk About It Mate was to externalise negative thoughts, not letting them dominate the whole image, to change perspective.

Turning the words they once used against themselves into something softer, kinder and alive. Covering old labels with growth, colour, and nature because even the harshest thoughts can be rewritten. 🌿

Some of the guys used metaphors, symbolism, self reflection and some took over creatively erasing the word all together.

14/04/2026

✨Neurographic Drawing ✨

Ever feel like your thoughts are all over the place?

This exercise is a simple way to slow things down.

Today with Talk About It Mate we started off with drawing random, messy lines across the page - no plan, no pressure. Then slowly go back and round off the sharp edges, connect the lines, and bring some order to it, and filled the gaps with creative abstractions.

The intention is not to create art, but training your focus.

What starts as chaos gradually becomes something more structured, and that’s shift can help your mind do the same.

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 💛

Address

Manchester

Website

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

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