I caught up with Alex from Paint Jam to find out more.

Why did you set Paint Jam up? 

We want to give people who might not be ‘artists’ or work in a creative field the opportunity to discover their creativity in a relaxed, party-like atmosphere. We believe that everyone can be an artist, but many people are almost scared of being creative and we want to change that.

How successful has it been?

It’s lovely to see the transformation in people, sometimes they can be a bit shy at the beginning of the workshop but usually after a few minutes they become more and more confident and walk out with an amazing painting. To see someone who usually doesn’t paint become more confident and relaxed, and maybe helping them to discover a new hobby, is incredibly rewarding.

Why is it good for people who aren’t ordinarily creative? 

We believe that art is for everyone, not just trained artists. There are so many health benefits of being creative, but often people lack the confidence. We want to give everyone the opportunity to be creative in a relaxed, fun environment.

If you’re interested in getting involved, get in touch!

The Paddlesworth Project ‘aims to grow contemporary rural communities through the provision of time and space for projects with creativity and sustainability at their core. It is a holistic site for learning and reconnecting through arts, culture and the environment where fun and friendship is central.’  How does Pitch Festival align with and represent those aims?

Our first Pitch has been emotional, hilarious, challenging, tearful, unexpected, miraculous… and it hasn’t even started yet. But that’s what it’s literally all about, pitching in. We’re all in this together facing challenging deadlines, situation and circumstances, pushing windows and pulling together. A collaborative project indeed is setting up a festival. Kid slave labour, late night cleaning parties, to portaloo or not to portaloo… these will go down in Paddlesworth Project’s history. But the real deal is, we’re not all that interested in history. It’s the now moment and the forward growth that matter. Pitch will give us all an opportunity to reach out to people with this philosophy to pitch in and continue to grow the reality of creative sustainability with a holistic environmentally aware site specific lifelong art installation and learning centre.

Do you have a particular craft, art form or skill that you are passionate about?

Personally, I’m a bit of an artistic jack of all trades: painter, photographer and musician. My interests are now in presenting choices to the next generation and responsibility teaching sustainability, particularly in relation to food and the land. So I love to build greenhouses and squash arches and make sculptures which change and grown together with plant life. At the Project we have puppet makers, dancers, sculptors, animators illustrators, print makers and plenty of room for more.

How have you seen arts change lives and communities?

My experience is mainly with children and young adults, who all use arts naturally and instinctively to learn, collaborate and satisfy deep needs fluidly and with ease, going with the flow and transcending time. It’s amazing to watch. I know arts can turn around broken communities and families, I know many musicians who’ve worked in prisons with great success, the list goes on. For me, my mission is to facilitate keeping the young growing with arts throughout their development, so they may never lose their way, their personal empowerment or their expression.

The clue is in the name: at Pitch Festival anyone can ‘pitch’ in. Do you have a lot of people both performing and spectating, and so breaking down that divide?

Yes plenty, many people have contacted us to perform, through the call out and we’ welcome them and look forward to providing a platform for everyone to show case their talents, the days of untouchable stars ought to be on their way out it seems to mostly be unhealthy for all concerned and everybody can offer something, we just need our 15 minutes.

Can you give a whistle stop introduction to some of your favourite artists across the stages?

Randolph Matthews is incredible, see him to believe him – a vocal gymnastic and super personable on stage; really really great fun. Momerath are hauntingly beautiful. With Mampama I just close my eyes and get taken away to a warm beach and smile. The Speedball Experience bring super talented high energy dance dance dance and Miss Pink, fresh from blazing reviews at Glastonbury is going to smash it. The great variety we’ve got heading down is SO exciting!

I recommend you get your tickets now and get ready to pitch right in.

Small and unassuming, this notebook focuses on embracing the process, not the product. The tasks are less tasks themselves, and more signposts to help readers along their own journey of navigating the imagination, using creativity as guidance. As the blurb says ‘Every answer is inside you.’

Short and accessible, the exercises include listing five things that always make you smile, reflecting on dreams that have not yet happened, seizing the one thing that motivates you in life and moving towards it, circling your values and looking through a different lens.

Quotes from thinkers, creatives, visionaries are illustrated with vibrant watercolour paintings in Meara’s signature style. Just by presenting those familiar ideas in a new way they are shifted and transformed, made more personally resonant through the reflection. Her early years on the New Jersey shore inspired her illustrations, and you can see the mystery and magic infuse the style, whilst the bold colours of her native India illuminate them. Even when you don’t do the tasks, as in sit and put pen to paper and write something profound, it feels as though you are still working and transforming your consciousness through the visuals.

So many of the illustrations and quotes I want to put up on my wall, and so I was thrilled to learn that Meera sells the prints. Uplifting in all ways, it’s a nice way to both look inside of yourself and expand and grow out into your life.

It became apparent just how intrinsic this is to the creative process. When drawing an unfamiliar scene and an arrangement of disconnected objects you have to be aware and focus on what is actually there. That’s where the mindfulness aspect comes in. Much focus is put on the importance of really looking at what’s in front of us, rather than what we think we see.
I took my uncle, high flyer in finance and confessed technology geek, whose immediate gut reaction to my suggestion on how to spend a Tuesday evening was ‘no way.’ So he came. Although we agreed to put no pressure on ourselves and accept that with a gap of up to 30 years since last drawing, we wouldn’t like what we drew and that was fine, the first couple of exercises still felt a little stressful. But as soon as the time passed, the wine flowed and the muscles loosened, and we basically gave up trying to do it right and instead tried to do it for fun, things felt better.
Leaving with no new found skill, but a bunch of worksheets, drawings and tools, as well as an appreciation of the value of taking the time to sit, be and create. He even sent me this photo the next day, with the caption ‘So I find myself here…’ That’s success.