The Wild Indoors No.1: Getting Creative
Welcome to the first of a 5-part blog post series, The Wild Indoors. This is a collaborative series written together with Leah Bennett, who is a sustainability writer and researcher. Over the next 5 posts, we’ll share tips on how to bring more nature into your life, even when you are at home because of lockdown.
In this post, we’ll cover how getting creative through art and cooking can develop your connection to nature.
Art
Megan, how on earth (no pun intended) does art bring more nature into my life?! Sitting down and having a creative session is a lovely way of reconnecting with nature and bringing the outdoors in during the colder months and the pandemic.
I love having an art therapy session, whether that’s journaling, painting, drawing, photography, there’s so much possibility. No matter what form of art you enjoy, there are many ways to bring nature into your creative project and ‘re-wild’.
Photography
You don’t have to be a master photographer to have a go at nature photography. Turn a local walk into a mindful creative activity and bring your phone or camera out with you. Are there any interesting plants? Is there somewhere with a view you could visit? Think about where the sunlight is, do certain angles look intriguing, what would close up shots or panoramas look like? Using prompts like these for photography also helps connect you to what’s in front of you and the finer details of nature.
Painting/drawing/colouring
You may not realise it but painting/colouring/drawing and really any form of art and craft can bring more nature into your life.
Colouring books for mindfulness are very popular, and many designs have a nature theme in some way, whether that’s plants, animals or landscapes. This is a lovely way to reconnect with the colours in nature.
Other art ideas to help bring more nature into your life include:
- Still life sketching using plants at home. You could even visit a local beauty spot and have a go at landscape drawing and painting – when it’s safe to do so.
- Have a go at leaf and flower pressing. After pressing, why not use them in a picture by sticking them onto a canvas or card?
- Did you know you can use paper to make your own plant pots? I love this Gardener’s World tutorial.
Cooking
The next time you are baking or cooking a meal, think about ways you can bring nature into it.
If you are baking a cake and decorating it, have a go at a nature-inspired design such as using flowers or leaves as inspiration.
Cooking offers so many opportunities to reconnect with the power of nature. Nature provides all of our food sources in some way – whether that is plant or animal based.
Exploring the world of seasonal ingredients gives you the chance to discover what food sources are available right on your doorstep. Whether that is shopping at local farm shops and grocers, or trying your hand at growing your own, eating seasonally is great on so many levels.
It is more eco-friendly because there is less travel involved and the food is fresher. This in itself makes seasonal food healthier for you because fresh produce contains the highest nutritional value compared to when they are stored for long periods of time due to transportation. Eating in season is also cheaper and more flavoursome!
You can also put your creative chef hat on and try new recipes using seasonal produce. Gem from The Mother Cooker has an incredible blog about all things seasonal cooking and gardening and it’s a must-read for anyone wanting to get into seasonal eating.
Pin these ideas so you can look back at them later
Do you have any creative hobbies that you could introduce more nature into?
