We’re delighted to welcome back Martina Ziewe as the guest artist for our next Drink and Draw session on Wednesday 15th October. Martina’s practice moves fluidly between art and mindfulness practise spanning life modelling, facilitating drawing sessions, yoga, and meditation. At the heart of her work is a commitment to creating environments where people can listen inwardly, explore creativity without pressure, and connect meaningfully with one another.

Ahead of leading the Drink and Draw, we sat down with Martina to talk about her journey from her yoga and meditation teaching to her studies at the Royal Drawing School, and how all these experiences shape the unique, supportive communities she helps to build through her creative practice.

Your work spans art and mindful practices - from life modelling and facilitating drawing sessions, to teaching yoga and meditation. How do these different roles inform each other, and how do they shape the kind of communities you're helping to build through your creative practice?

Martina - The underlying thing all these practices have in common is the holding of space and of people. I encourage people to listen inwardly, to respond and make decisions according to what is right for them, through the tools I share in the yoga and meditation sessions. I have the intention to create warm, welcoming spaces for people to let go, to listen, to observe, to practice awareness and to enter a flow state.

Community is a very important thing to cultivate and nurture, it is especially pertinent in these incredibly challenging times. Co-creating spaces where people can learn to trust, listen inwardly and make their own decisions based on their lived experience of being human is something I actively encourage. My classes are very client centred, I check in regularly to inform how the sessions can change according to the learning of the students. Another important aspect of the sessions I hold is the playful and fun element. Sharing moments of joy and silliness helps bring lightness to our lives. Resting, slowing down, being still, listening, observing and resourcing ourselves in this way can have a positive impact, helping us come back to our everyday lives perhaps a little better equipped to deal with the challenges we are faced with and hopefully therefore have a ripple effect and a positive impact on others we come into contact with.

These practices weave together and inform one another as everything does. I learn from working with all different client groups and what they bring. In yoga I work with older people mainly. I also work in community spaces with adults with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and mental health challenges. I learn a lot from these spaces as they are less conventional and people tend to not conform to societal norms.

How do these shape the kinds of communities you are helping to build?

Martina - In the chair yoga and meditation groups I teach in local community centres, (for almost a decade now), many people made friends from meeting there, and go out together one to one and in groups, they have gone on holidays together, they give one another lifts, visit one another if ever in hospital, check in through WhatsApp groups if someone isn’t at class. It has grown to be a tight knit, strong, kind and supportive local community, all from practicing yoga together in a circle every week (sometimes more). Doing this on a Monday morning weekly sets a tone for the week ahead with intention and care, so this weekly class has a trickle effect into other aspects of their lives.

In the life drawing community it is also important to be welcoming, as it can be intimidating coming to draw as a beginner, so part of my job is to invite people in to feel relaxed and welcome, helping create a low stakes environment. Attendees to the life drawing room sometimes live alone, have life challenges, or very busy lives, all sorts of things going on.

Listening to music, while drawing together, drinking tea, talking and sharing. Nurturing a creative, inspiring space is a wonderful thing to be able to offer to my local community. Holding space where people can sharpen their mindful and creative practice. There is such a special atmosphere in the room when we are all quiet and focusing on a shared practice synching up our nervous systems, our breath and our heart beats. I feel this to be a positive contribution I can offer with my background and personal practices. These spaces gives us a little time out from the horrific news of the days worlds events, to respond simply to the living being in front of us and to honour them. We have a variety of excellent models who bring so much to us in their presence, often Artists themselves.

Again, people make friends in these sessions, we are encouraging of one another and we inspire one another. These spaces can help boost peoples confidence. And all the sessions can enhance peoples health and well-being on a number of levels from the physical to the spiritual.

To summarise a little here, the Drawing Room, who I run sessions under:

“Our ethos is providing welcoming and friendly sessions as well as expert tuition so that anyone who comes through our doors – be they complete beginners or professional artists – can have the freedom, guidance and space to develop their practice and discover new ways of seeing and working”.

You’ve recently completed the Royal Drawing school’s intensive drawing course – can you tell us about your experience?

Martina - It was a very positive experience. I went to university to study Fine Art at Kingston University when I was 19 and I felt like I was going off to uni for the first time again. Having a whole week to be a student was something I embraced and am very grateful for. There were a variety of sessions to choose from. It challenged me and I learned new things. I highly recommend the Summer School intensive, to fully immerse yourself in drawing intensively all day everyday! The things I learned there I will carry with me into my practice going forward, such as some of the exercises we tried I can take into my own sessions. Shout out to Artist David Gardner who is an example of a compassionate Artist, Practitioner and facilitator, I learned a lot from his Narrative Drawing Day both in my learning experience and in the way he holds space for others. The other sessions I chose were the Drawing Lab and Human Anatomy. This experience of the Drawing School made me want to be a student again. I wrote about each days learning on my instagram if you’d like to read further about my experience. Generally the school taught me unconventional ways of drawing especially in the Drawing Lab experience with Charlotte Mann.

Life modelling can be an incredibly vulnerable and powerful experience. What has it taught you about presence, acceptance, and being seen - both by others and yourself?

Martina - Life modelling is a meditation. When I get into a deeper meditative state I first become aware of the energy within me, and this can extend to picking up on the energy of people present and the broader field of the room. The positions I come into reflect how I am on the day, sometimes strong and self possessed, at other times vulnerable and quiet and all sorts in-between. Depending on where one is on the day being seen can be empowering and an act of giving to the creative process to inspire. It can also be a sensitive area depending on ones internal landscape. It is a very human humbling experience and this is the gift you are sharing in your humanity and presence to the artists who are drawing.

One has to be present because of the sensations that arise in the body, particularly when the pose is more challenging, this can be interesting for building mental resilience and stamina. In life modelling you can explore the edge as well as choosing surrendering gentler poses. So one must be present to what ever arises, hence a meditation and a practice of acceptance to what arises mentally and physically and whatever levels I tune into on the day.

What are you reading at the moment?

Martina - One day, everyone will have always been against this - Omar Ali Akkad

& Tending Grief - Camille Sapara Barton

Finally, what’s on your studio playlist? Give us 10 tracks - either what you’re listening to right now or an all-time top 10 for working in the studio.

Martina - I am not very good at favourites generally, but here are few that I have played lot in no particular order picked from various studio playlists…

Yumeijis theme - from ‘In the Mood for love’ soundtrack - Shigeru Umbayashi

Whiskey Story Time - Alabaster DePlume

Rola Azar - Ya Taala'in al-Jaba

Sea swallow me - Cocteau Twins

To li - Jojo Abot

Keytar (I was busy) - Jemma Freeman and the cosmic something

The Sailors Bonnet - The Gloaming

On the nature of day light - Max Richter

Song for Zula - Phospherescent

More Pressure - Kae Tempest, Kevin Abstract

Martina Ziewe

Jasmine Simpson