Green Sketching Ambassador training with Dr Ali Foxon
Green sketching has huge potential to help large numbers of people reconnect with nature and improve their wellbeing. That’s why I’m delighted to be training a growing network of green sketching ambassadors here in the UK and overseas. Check out their profiles below to see if there’s a green sketching ambassador near you. Together, we’re changing hearts and minds, one doodler at a time!
Meet the Ambassadors
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Dr Sarah Bateup
LINCOLNSHIRE, UK
Sarah is a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist who has co-founded a wellbeing centre in the beautiful Lincolnshire Wolds. The Fulcrum runs wellbeing events for people of all ages. Sarah was drawn to Green Sketching through her mindfulness practice. Sarah is a qualified mindfulness teacher and uses green sketching to help people slow down, take notice and appreciate nature. She runs green sketching events in her 6 acres of beautiful garden overlooking the wolds but if the weather is a bit damp people can retreat to the tipi or wild kitchen. Expect to leave with a slower heart rate and a calmer mind.
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Mirja Brandorrf
NETHERLANDS
My name is Mirja Brandorff and I live in a village in the north of the Netherlands. Ever since my childhood I have been walking around with a sketchbook in nature. I am the author of the book ‘Nature Journaling’ and work as a freelance illustrator and provide nature education lessons for primary schools. I also organise nature journaling and green sketching workshops. During these workshops, I see a great positive on the mental well-being of participants. The extent to which this happened surprised me.
I wanted to know more about it and got in touch with Ali and followed the green sketching ambassador training. This gave me the foundation I needed. It made me even more passionate about spreading green sketching so that as many people as possible can get to know green sketching and experience more connections with their environment and with themselves. In the end, I am convinced this all contributes to a healthy and green earth.
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Claire Watson
WEST SUSSEX, UK
I'm a nature-loving illustrator, so teaching green sketching workshops brings together my two passions. Helping people discover the joy of drawing while outside and exploring nature in our local wild spaces is just magical, I love it!
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Anne Harrington
WEST CORK, IRELAND
Originally from Co Kilkenny, Ireland, I'm now based in West Cork. My qualifications in Horticulture and Craft Design, years of artistic practice in schools and healthcare settings, and passion for the natural world ensures that the Green Sketching events I organise will be a unique experience.
My hope is that doodling outdoors will help workshop participants improve their well-being, see the beauty in the world around us and join me in looking after nature, as, after all Nature is Home.💚
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Sharon Drew
LONDON, UK
Sharon Drew is a London-based artist whose process-based abstract paintings respond to her experience of the natural world.
Drew’s paintings have been embraced by the world of fashion and interiors and feature in private collections in London, Los Angeles, Toronto, Zurich and Grenoble.
Sharon completed her Fine Art MA at Central Saint Martins in 2003 and is now a Mentor to CSM Fine Art MA and BA students. Previously a tutor in Art & Design for over 25 years she runs Green Sketching workshops for adults, forging a greater connection and appreciation of nature and helping to improve sense of wellbeing.
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Karen Bentley-Brown
CUMBRIA, UK
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Melanie Kis
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Louise Earnshaw
LINCOLNSHIRE, UK
After studying Wildlife Illustration I became a secondary school Art teacher and during this time a qualified as a mountain leader. In recent times I have changed my career becoming self employed as an artist and outdoor instructor where I am now combining my love of being outside with the artwork I currently create using a range of different techniques and media. I became a green sketching ambassador because I personally feel great benefits from sketching in a natural environment and wanted to help share this with other people which I now do through workshops locally in Lincolnshire for both adults and children.
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Kimberli Werner
YORKSHIRE, UK
I’m an abstract expressionist artist inspired by nature, so I slow down and notice things often, storing them in my mind to come out through my painting. I paint for people who are curious about the world around them and love noticing the fleeting moments in nature – whether that is the sparkle of sunlight on the surface of a lake, the inner structure of a leaf, or the sound of a swan’s wings as they fly overhead. Becoming a Green Ambassador seemed like a natural extension of what I already do. I want to help people slow down, notice the details, and quiet their minds.
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Veronika Constantinou
ITALY/CYPRUS
Veronika Constantinou (born in 1996) is a Cypriot contemporary artist exploring numerous techniques in her art practice. She received a BA and an Integrated Master in Applied and Fine Arts from the University of Western Macedonia in Greece. She has also graduated from Burren College of Art in Ireland with an MA in Art & Ecology. Through her art, she connects natural and recycled elements in a playful way while she invites the viewer to interact and participate with her work. Currently, she is working voluntary at a centre for disabled people in Italy, exploring creative activities that promote connection and the wellbeing. She is excited about integrating green sketching into her work.
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Sandra Biskup
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
I am a freelance illustrator and graphic designer based in Vienna, Austria. As a founder of ‘Urban Sketchers Vienna’ I have been sketching on location since 2015. Nature offers big resources of inspiration: endless organic shapes and harmonious colour palettes. I discovered that drawing in nature also makes me feel calm, relaxed and connected to myself, especially in stressful moments. Because I am a big fan of travelling, I developed a tiny watercolour box with just 6 colours that I always bring on my trips to reduce weight and stay spontaneous. In my ‘Green Sketching’ workshops I offer easy walks and various sketching exercises: we learn to look closely, connect with our surroundings, discover different shapes, capture the essential and mix colours.
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Victoria Hides
SUFFOLK, UK
I work in a primary school setting as a learning support assistant. I came to green sketching not only as a creative outlet but also as a mindfulness tool, to anchor myself in the present moment whilst noticing the beauty that is all around us.
I have learned that if I take my busy mind and worries out joy spotting with me, then I can interrupt my stream of thoughts with possibility of what I may experience in the natural world.
I currently share my love of green sketching within a local school as an after school club and I hope to extend this out to the local community via workshops in the very near future. I live in Suffolk with my husband, 2 wonderful children and a very bouncy cocker spaniel!
Contact details to follow
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Emma Coxon
HAMPSHIRE, UK
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Jill Sives
EDINBURGH, UK
One of the most fulfilling jobs I’ve had since graduating art school has been to work on a flower farm using organic principles. It's been such a joy and privilege to work outside and nurture plants from seed to harvest.
With all this extra time outside I began to realise how much more I noticed within my surroundings. Being able to identify birds by sound, the beautiful network of life in the soil or to see the strength, beauty and perseverance of all plants from ‘weeds’ to the ones we purposefully plant and the wildlife that relies upon them. I’ve found that regular drawing also provides the same benefits of noticing more. It forces you to slow down to really see what you are looking at.
Green sketching has become the perfect way to combine and share my love of drawing and being outside amongst the plants and it has been such a joy to share this with others.
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Patricia Walsh Concannon
INISHBOFIN, COUNTY GALWAY, IRELAND
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Lindsey Viner
OXFORDSHIRE, UK
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Rachel Goddard
BRIGHTON, UK
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Kay Hebbert
DEVON, UK
Details to follow
