Last week we discovered a hummingbird building her nest in our yard! My daughter put hair from her brush out for the bird to use and she wove some into her nest. We've been keeping the feeder full for her too. Here she is in her beautifully constructed nest - my favourite part is the lichen 💚.  Don't worry, I'm not close, I just zoomed in lots! Below the photo is a link to a little video of her that I posted to YouTube Shorts.

This week I also connected to ‘nest’ through drawing.  Victoria art therapist @heyheyshauna, who I enjoy following on Instagram, shared a photo of a soft nest she created during her bilateral drawing club. So when I needed a calming, quiet moment for myself,  I created a nest bilateral drawing in my beige paper sketchbook (Stillman and Birn). 

 

Have you ever tried bilateral drawings? In this mindful, sensory experience, you hold a drawing tool in each hand and draw with them simultaneously. Engaging both sides of your brain is calming and grounding. You can listen to music, draw in a rhythm with your breathing, or even close your eyes as you move your hands across the page. Taping a large sheet of paper to the wall is another way to do this activity so that you can engage more of your upper body. 

 

I drew on my page with dry watercolour pencil crayons and Neocolor II pastels. I used greens to represent mosses and lichen, browns for twigs, blue to represent the sky, white for feathers and softness and pink for the idea of love, warmth and motherhood. I also added some Dreamer's Gold and Fiddlehead Green paint by BEAM to represent the light. While I put some aesthetic thought into this page, the main reason to do bilateral drawing is for the soothing experience of it. Give it a try!