Arts - art and the living landscape, space and time to be, artistic retreat

Art & Living Landscape

Malham Moor is a living landscape under the protection of the National Park for its unique landscape features, its wildlife and habitats. At the same time farmers farm this landscape. It has a history, supports communities and their economies and also welcomes visitors for learning and recreation. Such learning is so much more than the acquisition of knowledge. It can be discovery of self and of nature as well as the meaning of life! It can enable you to discover what you don’t know that you know. Recreation too is so much more than just fresh air and exercise and can amount to recreating one’s self.

Self knowledge

For some, that will come about through activity and contact with nature’s living landscape. For others, deeper exploration takes them into the realm we call art and perhaps, through art, to awakening of deeper perceptions. The oracle of Delphi said, “Know thyself” and such knowing is aided by reflection in natural surroundings.

Tony Heald is one artist who has used Malham Moor as an inspiring environment for his own art and High Trenhouse for his courses. Katharine Holmes, a local artist with an international reputation, evokes this landscape of her youth in much of her work. Do have a look at her videos.

It is said that the eye is the window of the soul. By opening oneself to what nature offers, nature can reveal to you who you truly are. Here in this remarkable place it becomes possible through art – through drawing and painting, through sculpture, movement and drama, through writing and performance – to discover much of what really makes meaning in our lives.

Retreats

Learning an art, then, can also be to learn to be. One can discover the extent of one’s own ignorance, of how one sees things in limiting ways. Learning through art opens the doors of perception so that your senses extend to embrace an ever richer world of meaning.

Beyond the artist’s approach, there are other means of addressing personal development. In the English language the words healing, wholeness and health are closely related. There is little doubt that the fragmentary nature of our modern world, the pressures people are under and the destructive aspects of modern life, make it highly desirable to find time for an occasional retreat. This can be a low-key affair, no more than a healthy relaxing break. It can also be a serious attempt to find a new order in one’s life.

Simple exercises in imagination, contemplation, mindfulness and meditation, coupled with the time and space to reflect, can have profound healing effects. Drawing on often ancient teachings and powerfully translating these to the modern world, management consultants, therapists, teachers and shamans can help you to find deeper meaning in your life.

Invitation

At High Trenhouse we understand the needs of artists and teachers who need a sympathetic ambience for their work. We also understand the needs of their clients who need space and time to be. Come. See for yourself. We invite you into our living landscape to discover how to fill your life with meaning!

Article on serious play.