Raay - Royal Adelaide Art and Yoga

It's Saturday! Picnics! The Beach! Paper Shop! If you're out and about today and suddenly find yourself in need of a few sheets of paper for that project, you know the one, come see us, we'll be in from 11-3, with all the windows open, trying to generate a cross breeze, and doing a bit of drawing, probably. There's a stack of new handmade sheets, dried in the heatwave on Thursday, so I guess you could call them sun-ripened. There are a few sheets of Daler-Rowney pastel paper in warm, earthy colours - very delicious. There are massive, full sheets of Mohawk ultra-white eggshell - over a metre long. And more. See you soon.

Hey everybody, the June meeting of Plymouth Hypermobility Support & Sharing is this Saturday at RAAY. For more info about the session, contact Nic, details are on the card! Plymouth Online Directory Plymouth Octopus - POP Community Builder - Stonehouse

Hey all, a couple of quick reminders: There are RAAY Drawing School sessions on Friday (the 5th). Matt's session at 2pm is fully booked, Ed's session at 5pm has a few spaces available, so if you'd like to book on with Ed, DM me or email [email protected] Ed's doing another session of mixed media drawing, this week delving into the human form, and if his first two sessions are anything to go by, this one will be great. In my session, we'll be looking at developing abstraction, using form/still life as a starting point. Before I forget, we have two outdoor sessions coming up, on the 13th & the 20th, so fingers crossed the suddenly unpredictable weather decides to cooperate. Details will come in another post. For more info about RAAY Drawing School, see the post attached to the top of the page.

One final note, Paper Shop will be open this week on Friday the 5th, from about 11 until 2, and then again from about 4 until 6.

Yikes! I'm so used to doing panicky social media promo posts about 24 hours before any given activity at RAAY, it feels weird to have it all sorted out on Monday, and by lunch time, more-or-less. It's all here in one post, see each card for specific details, and get in touch for more info, if there's not enough here. So,

-The May session of Plymouth Hypermobility Support & Sharing (PHSS), is Saturday the 30th, 11-1. Contact Nic for details and info.

-RAAY Drawing School Sessions on Friday the 29th. Helen's session is 2-4, Matt's session is 5-7. There're spaces available on both sessions, to book, DM me, or email [email protected] Details are in a post pinned to the top of the page, and I'll post a reminder midweek.

-MPH Paper Shop - Two days this week! Friday 12-4 and Saturday 11-3 come along to see a dazzling array of paper - handmade, reclaimed, recycled. I might even get into the studio to make sheets this week too, fingers crossed...

-And Finally - Framed, Again. If you have one of the burgundy red paper frames we handed out in March, you have until this Saturday, the 30th, to get your finished work into us. The show will open in early June, details of that to come.

OK, that's it for now, whew.

Hey all, week 4 of the RAAY Drawing School has arrived! Tomorrow (Friday 22nd), Ed Tapper delivers his second session 2-4, and Kitty McEwan delivers her third 5-7. There are limited spaces available in both sessions, so DM me or email [email protected] to book your spot. For more info about the drawing school, including full descriptions of each tutor's sessions, see the post pinned to the top of the page.

Tomorrow Ed's session will be mixed media drawing with a focus on organic forms in a still life setting. Rumor has it walnuts, chewing gum and modelling clay are just a few of the materials involved.

After last week's fab anatomy of a comic, Kitty's session this week looks at storytelling through character and object. What do someone's ratty old converse hi-tops say about them? Come along to find out.

Here are a few snapshots from Ed's session two weeks ago, and Kitty's last week.

Hope you can join us for some drawing.

Hey, with all the fuss over drawing school, I've neglected Paper Shop for a couple weeks, so here's an update with all the open days for the rest of May. Since we're in on Fridays for drawing school anyway, those of you with paper needs are more than welcome to come for a browse, or even just to say hello. Regular hours on Saturdays too. All the dates are on the poster.

A couple reminders:
The drawing school schedule and session descriptions are in a post pinned to the top of the page, check it out and get in touch to book onto a session (or two). This week (the 15th) Helen's session is 2-4, Kitty's is 5-7.

Also, the deadline for the Framed, Again exhibition is Saturday the 30th. There are still a few frames available, if you want in on the fun, get in touch, or just pop in during paper shop hours and pick up a frame. If you've already got one, you've got two weeks and a bit to finish yuor masterpiece. If this sounds like a beguiling mystery, I'll repost the orignal call out this weekend, it's full of info.

OK, that's it. Loads of interesting new (old, old-ish) papers including some seriously handmade sheets from a community project in Malawi (by way of a charity shop in Penzance), lokta tissue from a couple of old photo albums, and a stack of heavy A3 sheets with a laid pattern (probably not actually laid, but cool anyway.) There's also some handmade. sheets of mine with seaweed inclusions that I have to say made me pretty happy when I made them last month.

Oh my goodness, here we are only a couple of days away from this week's RAAY Drawing School, and it's going to be another great week. Helen and Kitty are delivering their second sessions, and I'm super excited for both. From 2-4, Helen takes a look (so to speak), at observational drawing - what we think we see vs what we actually see - and introduces some simple exercises to improve technique. Kitty's session, from 5-7, takes a deep dive into the fundamental aspects of drawing a comic - converting ideas into thumbnails, thumbnails into panels, and all the pieces that fit together to form a comic. I'll be on hand to answer questions, make tea nad generally be in the way. There are a couple spots available on both sessions, and each sessions is only £6. The groups are small, so booking is advised - DM me, or email - [email protected]

See you on Friday.

I've tacked a few snaps from my session last week to this post to get you in the mood for drawing. And, check it out! At the weekend, somebody left a spontaneous installation tucked behind our gas inlet pipe, which we thought was pretty cool, so we left it, and it's still there!

One final note, Paper Shop this week is on Saturday the 16th from 11-3.

Yikes! Hey all, week 2 RAAY Drawing School sessions are tonight, me at 2pm (me = Matt), and Ed Tapper at 5pm, and there are a couple of spots available if you'd like to come. I'm doing wacky drawing exercises, and some still life drawing, Ed's doing observation with organic forms. The sessions last 2 hours, and are £6 each. Also, it occurs to me I haven't introduced myself or Ed yet, so while he's rooting around in the cupboard for some drawings, here’s a little info about me. One more thing, Paper Shop is tomorrow (Saturday the 9th) from 11-3, so come on down, the shelves are full of interesting papers. (One final thing – during the day, I’ll only have access to my social media, so don’t email me! DM me here, or gimme a text at 07966 934954)

OK. I'm Matt Thomas, I run RAAY with my partner in all things, Nic Sharpe. Nic mostly looks after the yoga side of things, but she's a gifted & quirky artist herself, so she dips her toes in a lot of RAAY’s art doings. My father was a drawer & painter, and he started teaching me, when I was about six, by drawing the basics of shape, shading, perspective, tone, on sheets of paper that I copied. I also spent hours looking at the Time/Life set of books of famous artists we had in the house - Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, Goya, Picasso, Delacroix, Mary Cassatt. And comic books. That's how it started, in a nutshell.

Drawing has been central to my practice as long as I've had one, and while I’m not a rigorous draughtsman, I've developed a vocabulary of marks, shapes & compositional ideas that are second nature to me after 40 years. Lately I've been obsessed with walnut ink, layering, and the paper that I started making in the studio about 8 years ago.

I'd like my sessions to be a relaxing, gentle exploration of what drawing can be while staying anchored to the basics of pencil and paper. Here's some work, and info about my sessions, and general info about drawing school.

My sessions start, eep!, today the 8th of May. To book, email [email protected] or DM me.

To see more of my work, my instagram is I do throw stuff up there from time to time.

Adelaide Street represent.

Thank you to the very honest person who rescued my colleague’s bag inc his wallet and tied it to our car, Says a great deal about the sense of community in the Adelaide Street area. Adelaide Street AngelsRaay - Royal Adelaide Art and Yoga Plymouth City CouncilDevon & Cornwall PolicePlymouth Labour

Well, the first day of RAAY Drawing School is in the can and what a delight it was. Helen got the ball rolling with multisensory drawing and drawing machines. At one point while she had the group working on response to sounds, I was in the next room switching a power drill on and off, just to tweak things a bit. I crashed the session during drawing machines, and had a graphite stick attached to a stick attached to my fingers with a rubber band - not easy to negotiate, but great results. Kitty carried on in the evening session with mini-zines, which we made on our own and as a group. I crashed the zine session because I love zines, and it was definitely a trip to get into the zone working as a group and discover that I could carry on a narrative started by my neighbour. By the end of all these developing stories being passed around, we actually had four killer zines with fully realised narrative arcs and hilarious artwork. Already excited for next Friday, when Ed Tapper and i will be delivering our first sessions. Whoop!