Pillar Two / Create
Where the breath
meets the brush.
Practice
Workshops · Residencies
Materials
Foraged & Natural
Seasons
All Year-Round
— 01 A slow studio
Create is what happens when we stop optimizing and start noticing. Our workshops use breath to soften the inner critic — then put materials in your hands that the earth itself made.
Workshops &
residencies.
Creativity as ecology, not output. A return to the hand, the eye, the world close to itself.
We forage pigments from urban trees and Lake Ontario shoreline. We make ink from oak galls and walnut hulls. We marble paper in spring water. We treat the act of making as something between meditation and conversation with place.
For artists between projects, designers between sprints, architects between deadlines — and for anyone whose hands have forgotten what they used to know. No experience required. None desired, even.
i.
Breath & Brush
3 hr · Monthly · Studio
A guided breath session followed by intuitive watercolour and ink work. No skill required. The most accessible doorway into the practice.
$140materials included
ii.
Plein Air on the Islands
Half-day · Seasonal · Toronto Islands
Ferry across, set up, breathe in, paint slow. We provide easels, paper, foraged pigments, and a tea-and-conversation lunch under the cottonwoods.
$180incl. ferry & lunch
iii.
Natural Ink Making
Full-day · Quarterly
A full-day workshop on harvesting, processing, and binding natural pigments into ink. You leave with three jars and a relationship to your materials that no art-supply shop can sell you.
$240materials included
iv.
Water Marbling
3 hr · Seasonal
Suminagashi-influenced marbling in spring water. Quietly hypnotic, deeply meditative. You leave with a small portfolio of one-of-a-kind sheets.
$160materials included
v.
Studio Days for Makers
Full-day · By invitation
A quiet day held for working artists in partner gallery, gallery-adjacent, or outdoor venues — guided breath, shared meals, no agenda. Designed for people already mid-practice who need stillness, not stimulation.
$280per studio day
vi.
Creative Team Residencies
Custom · Quoted
For design studios, architecture firms, and innovation teams: half-day to multi-day residencies blending breath, hands-on craft, and slow-thinking time. Run on-site at your space, outdoors, or at a curated partner venue.
Bespokeby enquiry
— For Whom
For artists,
designers, and
everyone else.
You don't need to identify as creative to belong here. You need to be willing to make something with your hands without knowing how it will turn out.
We've held workshops for visual artists, architects, agency creative directors, surgeons, lawyers, parents on sabbatical, and people who hadn't made anything since high school art class. The work doesn't care about your title.
For creative agencies and innovation teams, our team residencies have become a quiet alternative to the conventional offsite — slower, deeper, more material.
"Eye-opening experience. A great gathering of good vibes and creative people. I was able to break down mental and creative blocks. Highly recommend to anyone, creative or not. It changed a lot for me, and creativity was flowing way easier."
— Eryn Thorsley, Visual Artist
— Begin
Make something
without a plan.
Browse the workshop calendar, enquire about a residency for your team, or just send us a note. The studio is small and the work is patient.