Learning to look

When my work was included in Flourishing, an exhibition at Oxford's Saïd Business School, I was also invited to run an outdoor drawing workshop.

The exhibition was interested in how we understand the world around us - exploring art, science and our relationship with the natural world. What happens when we approach something from a different perspective?

So drawing outside felt like a natural extension of that idea. It's one of my favourite ways to get people to look differently.

The aim isn't to draw something accurately. It's to slow down and notice things: movement, texture, scale, sound, patterns. Things that are often overlooked because we're so used to seeing them.

And drawing has a curious effect. Once you start trying to draw something, you see it differently.

You notice the way a branch actually grows, rather than the generic idea of what a tree looks like. You become aware of negative space, changes in texture, tiny movements. You start to see relationships between things rather than simply objects.

I've become increasingly interested in drawing and making not just as ways of producing an image, but as ways of paying attention. The act of making changes the way we look - and can open up ways of thinking that we might not reach through analysis alone.

So teaching drawing isn't really about teaching people how to draw. It's about inviting people to try out different ways of looking - and seeing what works for them.

There doesn't always need to be a good drawing at the end. Instead - what piques their curiosity? What feels interesting? What resonates?

Let's not worry about the outcome. Let's just see what happens when we do some drawing.