In a Nutshell: Lisa from Iris Hill
Lisa from Iris Hill is an artist and yoga teacher. Her work is geared towards sharing joy through creative workshops and artwork.
As part of our commitment to local creatives we are using this time to get to know the Winchester scene a little better! Our ‘In a Nutshell’ interviews are aimed at local creatives, practitioners, freelancers and independent businesses residing in Winchester. We want to use our platform to meet new people and showcase the incredible talent residing in this city. Henry caught up with Lisa from Iris Hill and had a chat about her work and her involvement in the Hampshire creative scene. Enjoy!
Henry: Lisa, could you please talk to me a bit about what your practice is?
Lisa: Well, I'm really passionate about the arts and creativity and my whole ethos for my business is 'to share the joy of creativity'. So, I was running workshops in that way that was often, and I'm not knocking this because this is something that works for a lot of people and it is fantastic, but you would show a piece of artwork and you would say "this is what you're going to create by the end of the session" and that's what they would then takeaway. Like I said there is definitely value in that but me, as a teacher, I just found that I was going through the motion a little bit and what I really love is when people find their own artistic voice, or, they experiment and they play and they actually ignore what I tell them to do because they find that bit of confidence and they kind of run with it. So, I trained as a yoga teacher two years ago because I wanted to link more meditation and breathing practice in with how I taught watercolour painting. I run this session called Watercolour Wellbeing and I absolutely love it and it's a mix of pranayama, so our breathing techniques; mix of meditation, gentle stretching and fluid, flowing, runny watercolour painting!
HM: That sounds like a very good mix!
LG: But, the reason I'm a watercolour artist...I've been practicing and commissioned as a watercolour artist for many years, I love the medium I am obsessed with watercolours. But because of the nature of watercolours, you can be quite tight and controlled with it and again there is value in that, but you kind of have to relinquish control and let them do their own thing. Put a bit of pigment in water and its going to surprise you, it's gonna run how it wants to run, it's gonna do its own thing...so I try to focus on creative process rather than perfect paintings or perfect postures, it's all about the doing rather than what the end result is.
HM: As a dancer I can feel what you're saying striking a chord with me and my own experience. I guess the watercolour itself has its own mind, has its own movement, when you start to pop-it-down it will run off, or...yeah, that's really fascinating.
LG: Yeah, it's amazing! I say "we breathe with our brush", so, I do demonstrations of meditation where I link a pranayama practice, so it could be for example in a yoga class I would do three breaths and a sigh so you inhale and then you sigh it out and the watercolour gives me a really good visual representation of how to do that because if you create a watercolour puddle and you drop a bit of watercolour into it that breathes as your breathes. It's a really lovely, visual way to express breathing, I'm obsessed with breathing as well. The benefits of breathing well and with awareness are amazing for your health. We all breathe, we can all do it and to bring your awareness to the breath and find where you can take it is quite amazing and...if you deepen your breath, then you are encouraging all those systems in your body, it takes you from fight-or-flight into the parasympathetic nervous system whilst also helping with the oxygen levels in your blood and how that travels around your body which is obviously healing and nourishing your body. So the health benefits of just bringing your awareness to your breath are crazy they're amazing!
When I paint as an artist I paint with my breath, so a lot of my paintings may look like a floral-bouquet, but they will be like thousands of breaths and sometimes I record it sometimes I don't; but it's been something that I've been really experimenting with and having a lot of fun with. So those now in turn [the artwork] have turned into meditations themselves. When I was training as yoga teacher I wrote a piece called 'meditation is not for me' because my idea of what meditation was was sitting on the mat, legs crossed, eyes closed and "right, off you go then!" and I would be, you know I'm a fidget, my concentration span is that of a nat, I'm a waffler as you could tell! But, what I found was if I sat down with a paintbrush, that was my tool, and then I could meditate. So meditation is not clearing your mind, it's focussing on one thing, so effectively whenever your are dancing [not too often with the current situation!] or anytime someone is doing a craft activity or anything creative, if they are immersed in that creativity then they are essentially meditating. So, yeah I guess I just really love to play around and then share that with people!
HM: It's super lovely to hear you say that. Being completely immersed in just the one-thing , I think, that in itself is practicing living presently, as much as you can, you're just completely focussed on the thing you're doing there and then. I see this is starting to come back into peoples lives more, you can get so overwhelmed in everyday life and not know why...
LG: ...oh, gosh because there's constantly messages around us and distractions all the time with phones and technology. Technology is amazing, everything has its place its just how you utilise it for a healthy lifestyle.
HM: How long have you been based in Winchester, or the surrounding areas?
LG: I work across Hampshire and I've moved away a few times but seem to be on a bit of a yo-yo back! So, pretty much Hampshire born and bred!
HM: Do you think you can put into words how you feel about the Winchester or Hampshire artistic community as you know it?
LG: Oh I think its fantastic! People are exciting to work with in this area. I think that there is a real creative thirst and, yeah, I love working in this area because people are interesting and interested. Because of their interest that has enabled me to explore and experiment, because I've had their encouragement when I've gone out with a bit of a mad-scientist idea people have been like "I'm there, I'm booking on!", "great!", "fantastic!". Without that support I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. I feel there is a real need and a space like The Nutshell; that's a really energetic hub it's a lovely energy when you walk into that space and you can see its being used for all sorts of things. When you walk into reception and the artwork is different...you never quite know what you're going to see or if you pop in because you just need to check a booking you might hear the chorus of someone singing, or you might hear someone dancing. It's a lovely energy it's a real hub and to be able to bring that back [to the city] is great. After lockdown I've got a space at The Yard studios where I should have moved in in April, but obviously that's just on hold temporarily at the moment and my lounge has become my studio. Studio light and all sorts here, Henry!
HM: Well it looks like a very nice lounge to have a studio in!
LG: I'm very lucky!
HM: Do you feel supported by the artistic community to do what you do?
LG: I do. I really do. I feel supported by the public which is phenomenal. If I have a particular idea I know where to go and where to pitch it, to receive funding if that's something that I wanted to do. I find the yoga community in particular is really open to collaborating because the whole notion of yoga is to share and pass on. Say for example, if I taught a yoga flow and a teacher came to my class and saw something and they were like "I love that!" they could just take it and run with it. In yoga you are a voice for ancient yogis, passing on everything that has come before you, so you're very much like a sharing mechanism. Collaborations are very important because, you know we are often trying to do similar things and there is definitely strength in collaborations and in supporting people. But I generally feel very supported, there are loads of business groups in Winchester and people I've made connections with at New Energy yoga studios who have come on my workshops out in Wickham way, so they've traveled over. [...] There's all sorts of pockets of communities here [...] and its about finding your little pocket, which can take time.
Do you have any questions or ideas of your own? Would you like a Lisa Gardner original? You can follow all of Lisa’s fantastic artwork and classes on her social media pages. Get in touch!
Instagram: @irishill
Facebook: Iris Hill Art & Yoga
Email: hello@irishill.co.uk