Woodland Tuesdays: holiday events for families

Woodland Tuesdays

free art events in Buxton woods in the summer holidays

From puppets to treasure chests, pompom monsters to creatures on your fingers, we’re bringing free creative sessions to the woods of Buxton. We will be running Woodland Tuesday art sessions in different woods on most Tuesdays through the school summer holidays

These sessions will be open for people to simply drop by and join in (but the situation might change so keep an eye on things at the links below and there are slots you can book on the Eventbrite pages). Sessions are free and aim to run from 10.30am to 1pm – the activity itself will probably take about 45 minutes. Activities will be aimed at families with children between maybe 3 and 12 years of age

FLAGS, WHAT 3 WORDS AND NOT GETTING LOST

Because we may be delivering these sessions in the middle of some of our woods we thought adding some What3Words locations might help. From a named entry point (eg Corbar Woods entry Corbar Rd), we will also mark the route to where the action is with flags and event arrows

Keep an eye on the links below for final details as they are confirmed:

Stronger Roots:  https://buxtoncivicassociation.org.uk/stronger-roots/

Stronger Roots events page: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/buxton-civic-association-limited-10198190093

Facebook: @Creeping Toad

Website: creepingtoad.blogspot.com

July 27^th: Twig people and Stick Monsters 

at Buxton Country Park (Grinlow Woods). A handful of twigs, twist of cloth, a smiling face and we’ll make the hidden people of the woods

Finding us: follow flags into the woods from the Buxton Country Park car park, Green Lane, Buxton. SK17 9DH

Eventbrite link for this event: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/woodland-tuesdays-twig-people-and-stick-monsters-tickets-163774139861

August 3^rd: Treasure Chests and pirate maps 

What is the lost treasure of the Gadley Pirates? Decorate your own treasure chest, create your own tiny pirate and send them away with a terrible treasure map

Finding us: we’ll be beside the pond in the middle of Gadley Woods (W3W: oatmeal.shelter.flickers): 

lots of routes in:

• from Gadley Lane, 
• over the golf course, 
• Gadley Lane from Watford Rd
• Gadley Lane then through the housing development and the footpath and gate into the woods: What3Words: shackles.fuss.racked

Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/woodland-tuesdays-treasure-chests-and-pirate-maps-tickets-163775247173

August 17^th: Pompom monsters 

Unexpected fluffy creatures lurking in the undergrowth – help us make a forest full of pom-pom birds, beasts and bizarre creatures! (we’ll have pompom makers with us but bring your own if you want to)

Finding us: Corbar Woods: follow the flags into the woods from the Corbar Rd entrance

W3W: pill-friends.snooping

Eventbrite link: Pompom monsters

August 24^th: Fingersful of creatures

Make animal puppets for your fingers: create your own adventures, rabbits, spiders, badgers and bumblebees 

Finding us: follow flags into the woods from the Buxton Country Park car park, Green Lane, Buxton. SK17 9DH

Eventbrite link:

Eventbrite: Fingersful It helps us a bit if you book places but plese do drop in anyway: we'll lways tr toa ccommodate anyone who turns up!

 

August 31^st: Woodland Treasure Chests

The pirates are back! This time from the Good Ship Corbar, hiding their treasure in Sherbrook Woods: decorate your own treasure chest, make a pirate to find some natural treasures

Finding us: Corbar Woods: follow the flags into the woods from the Corbar Rd entrance

W3W: pill-friends.snooping

Eventbrite: Eventbrite: treasure chests

For all sessions: 

Times: 10.30am – 1pmThese are free events and materials are provided 

Tickets: no booking needed just drop by and join in, allow 45 minutes for the activity. You can book a slot through the relevant Eventbrite link if you want to but you can also just drop in

Covid-19 guidance: at the moment we can run these as open events but if restrictions change we might need to limit numbers in any session. Please check on the Stronger Roots Eventbrite page or Creeping Toad facebook pages before the event you want to come along to

Pencils, papers and tree shadows

A tall shape, a bushiness of leaves, 

a broomfull of twigs

the Sketching Trees workshop

Buxton Country Park, July 10th 2021

The elegance of beech trees, the strength of ash, the grace of birch and the richness of hazel: our woods are full of wonders and in this event, we invited visitors to take a bit more time to really look, to get to know our trees. We joined Geoff Chilton, a resident artist from the Green Man Gallery in Buxton who took us through a systematic approach to simplifying the drawing of a tree

The world around us is often inspiring and people often say “O, I wish I could draw/paint/write/whatever, but...”. This workshop, part of the BCA’s Stronger Roots Project, gave people some tools to challenge those “I’m not very good at…” statements.

Geoff encouraged people to look, to look more carefully, not to be swamped by the sheer mass of details in a woodland, but to turn to an individual tree. He introduced us to a language of mark-making, our own language: looking for shapes, shadows, creating suggestions of detail, and that nothing you try is wrong...

(This workshop took place at Buxton Country Park with the trees featured growing in Grin Low Woods that you can walk into from the car park at the Park, while you could also plunge into the subterranean cold of the spectacular Poole's Cavern there)

We wandered into the woods….. and the rest of this post is comments from participants:

Very grounding and enjoyable

Loving the time I spent in the woods

A delightful – all the more so because impromptu and spontaneous activity - providing a rest from physical and mental exertion and an opportunity to sit, observe and enjoy the beauty of trees

I’ve enjoyed very much the idea/the guidance/doing the sketching 

I’m taking away “permission” to sketch for myself

I feel peaceful, connected, happy, relaxed, aware

I now feel more confident to sit and sketch in the woods anytime

I’ve discovered a new area I’d return to visit

Thanks to all our Sketching Trees participants and to Geoff for leading the event so gently

Our next “yes, you can do this!” workshop is on Sunday 18^th, finding inspiration for stories among the trees with award winning playwriter Rob Young: A Blockbuster with Trees

A full list of upcoming Stronger Roots events cna be found on the project's eventbrite page

For families, look out for Woodland Tuesdays that will be running through the summer holidays

Beech glade in Grin Low Woods