Wild Glen Creative Healing

07/07/2026

07/07/2026

Fabulous how this is coming on. 🥰

06/07/2026

Trying a new idea. Working with oil pastels.

05/07/2026

Post migraine drawing. Getting ready for the start of my six week beginner drawing course.

24/06/2026

Reclaiming my spark. Stepping away from promotion and back into paint. Today I’m brushing in the first oil and odourless spirit base layer, easing myself into the rhythm of marks and colour. This is me coming home to the work.

22/06/2026

Sketch Sundays: Location Scouting Tomorrow
Tomorrow I’m taking advantage of what will hopefully be a bright, dry day here in Dunoon. I’ll be out and about visiting some of the locations I’m planning to use for Sketch Sundays, my weekly urban sketching sessions beginning on 5th July.

I’ll be doing a bit of action sketching, testing out camera angles on my drawing board, and getting a feel for the best viewpoints at each spot. This helps me plan sessions that are comfortable, inspiring, and full of interesting shapes, colours, and perspectives for everyone who joins.

If you see me around Dunoon with my board and pencils, feel free to say hello, it’s always lovely to meet people who are curious about drawing outdoors.

20/06/2026

Make a Mark! - "The 2026 Big Draw Festival"

A series of weekly drawing sessions across Dunoon and in-studio at Wild Glen Creative Healing, celebrating mark making, creative wellbeing, and community.

Activities include urban sketching, beginner portrait and self-portrait workshops, and free community mark-making sessions. Work created from the free community sessions will be displayed in an exhibition in October to celebrate "The 2026 Big Draw Festival" raising funds for The Food Bank, The ARC and Tah Dah. !

To find out more, or to book on the paid sessions contact Debz Wright on 07470 940879 or e-mail: [email protected] Booking: https://wildglencreativehealing.co.uk/%f0%9f%8c%bfart-classes/
The Big Draw https://www.thebigdraw.org/

19/06/2026

🎨 Wild Glen Creative Healing – Portrait Workshop Update
In preparation for rescheduling my 3‑Week Beginners Portrait Workshop, I wanted to share a little moment from the studio today, the unboxing of the two new models we’ll be using in the first week’s class. There’s something quietly exciting about opening new materials, knowing they’ll soon be part of someone’s first steps into portrait drawing.

This block will have six places available, keeping the group small, friendly, and supportive, the way I like to teach. If you’re interested in joining the first run of the workshop, please leave a comment on this post so I can gauge numbers before confirming the new dates.

I’m really looking forward to getting this series up and running again. 😃

18/06/2026

Since moving to Dunoon in 2023, I’ve been doing my best to establish portrait and life‑drawing classes here. Back in February I put out a survey and received a lot of positive feedback, many people said they’d be interested in attending classes, which gave me real hope.

Since then, I’ve tried everything I can to spread the word about the weekly drop‑in sessions and the three‑week beginners’ portrait block. Unfortunately, I’ve had to cancel the block due to low numbers, which has been disheartening.

For context, the going rate for portrait drop‑ins elsewhere is usually between £15 (for untaught sessions) and £40 (for taught sessions in London) for two hours. I originally priced my own drop‑ins at £25, with all materials included. That meant that even if only one person attended, I’d be paying myself just under minimum wage. I then reduced it to £20 which is £5.42 less than earning £12.71 an hour and that difference was meant to go towards replenishing materials for future classes. I simply can’t afford to lower the price any further. It becomes a race to the bottom when creative work is expected to be cheap or free, and even then there’s no guarantee people will turn up.

Two years ago I ran a free art walk with Dunoon on the Move. One person came. Experiences like that stay with you.

Despite all this, I’m still really keen to build regular classes here. At the moment, the only viable way for me to run them is by using reference images, partly because I’ve had no luck finding life models. If I did find models, they would need to be paid the proper rate (as set by the Register of Artists’ Models), plus transport. That means life‑drawing classes would need to be priced somewhere between £129 and £250+ for a block, depending on the level of tuition. I could reduce the cost slightly if people brought their own materials.

I’m fortunate not to have room‑hire overheads right now, but I’m still unsure what format would work best. I could run another drink‑and‑draw style event like last year, but I don’t drink and often feel out of place in those environments. I’m just not sure what the best direction is.

So this is a bit of an appeal. If you’d like to see portrait and life‑drawing classes re‑established in Dunoon, what would make you want to take part? At the moment I can only fit six people in my studio for daily classes. I could run sessions in a pub, but I don’t have the funds to buy extra easels or portable equipment. And if I charge less, I make a loss and can’t reinvest in materials.

I want to offer something meaningful, sustainable, and rooted in creativity, but I need to know what would genuinely support people to come along.