WORKSHOP: INTUITIVE AND EMBODIED DRAWING



Friday 19 December 2025
13:30 - 16:30

Artist studio
Zamenhofstraat 108 - Unit 104
Amsterdam-Noord


Reconnect with your spontaneaty and creativity through drawing, movement and play together with others!

How do you stay in touch with yourself and give it expression in the presence of others? How do your observe your inner motions and experiences, while being open and responsive to your environment? How do you actively participate in sharing a space and be in a create process together?

Introduction:


In this workshop, you’ll tune into your body and let your inner experience shape your drawings. There is no plan, no image to aim for, no goal to achieve. Instead, the exercises serve as an invitation to follow what unfolds and to allow surprise, honesty, and curiosity to guide your movement. You will also connect with others by creating a shared dialogue on paper.  Afterwards, we will gather our drawings and personal experiences in a shared conversation, giving voice to what was expressed nonverbally and sensing the resonance within the differences and similarities between us.


What to expect:

  • Presence in your body: light exercises, breath and simple movement to arrive in the moment.
  • Intuitive and creative expression: drawing guided by sensation, curiosity and spontaneity rather than outcome. 
  • Awareness in connection: exploring how your movement and expression shift in relation to others.
  • Creating together: collaborative drawing that blend individual and shared expression.
  • Exploring perspectives: share personal experiences together, give words to nonverbal expression, and notice where perspectives resonate or differ.

What it can offer you:

  • Reconnect with yourself and the present moment: tune into your body, senses, and inner experience.
  • Explore your inner world: welcome all sensations, thoughts, and feelings, including seemingly contradictory ones.
  • Notice resistance and move with them: explore what discomfort or blockages reveal and learn to trust your intution
  • Access creativity, spontaneity and imagination: feel freer, more playful, and open to making and express without judgement.
  • Express yourself: share your inner world and find your own personal and artistic voice in the presence of others
  • Benefits of physical making: reconnect with the tactile world, experience how working with your hands can regulate your nervous system and reduce stress, and make creativity feel more tangible, accessible and grounded. 
  • Enhance connection with others: cultivate empathy, deep listening, and mutual awareness
  • Collaborative creation: experience the joy, resonance, and unexpected discoveries that arise when making together.

          ...be unapologetically yourself! Not as a big ‘f*ck you’ to the world, but as an starting point to feel connected and engage with the world you happen to be already part of.  



For whom?

Everyone is immaginative and creative! This workshop is for those who know this about themselves (which does not mean you are free from preconveiced ideas, judgement and perfectionism)  and those who wish to remember and reconnect with these parts of themselves.

Anyone (regardless of gender, race, nationality, sexual orientation or religion) who wishes to explore drawing, movement and creativity in a mindful and playful way is welcome to join!




Practical information

When

Friday 19 December 2025
13:30 - 16:30

The doors are open from 13:10 onwards for you to land in the space and have a tea.
Please be on time to honor the group starting together and not be interupted.

Location

Artist studio
Zamenhofstraat 108 - Unit 104
Amsterdam-Noord

The location is 15 min. walk from the metrostation Noorderpark and 4 min. from the east-ferry (hence, not the  one from central station, but the F1 Azartplein - Zamenhofstraat)
It is also easily reachable by car, with parking available on the street (€1,70/h).
There is an elevator in the building to access the first floor.

Investment

€45,80
Includes material (paper, including hand-made sheets, charcaol, pencils, black ink and (caligraphy) brushes), tea and snacks

Group

The workshop will consist of a small, intimate group with up to 7 participants.

Recommended


Wear comfortable clothes. We are not really getting messy, though better to avoid clothes you are very careful about. We are going to move around without shoes, so bring warm socks or at least ones without holes in them ;)

We are going to sit on cushions on the floor, but there are chairs available if desirable. Feel free to bring your own (meditation) cushion as well.

Accesibility and Participation

This workshop strives to be as accessible and welcoming as possible. If you have concerns about participating due to physical or cognitive conditions, please do not hesitate to contact me.  

Listen to your body and your needs: you can always choose your level of intensity. Try to stay engaged throughout the experience, also when you choose to lower intensity.


This should go without saying, but since this is something that remains unsaid when it should be mentioned: You are expected to indicate your boundaries and respect those of others.

Teaser workshop

This is a teaser workshop for a series of three workshops and a more personalized trajectory that will start in March 2026.

Sign up

You can sign up here!
For questions you can e-mail: velu.joana@gmail.com


Facilitator:

Joana Velu is a visual artist, producer and facilitator in the contemporary art sector and higher art education. 

She was raised between the Netherlands and Brazil and has a background in Cultural Studies and Fine Arts. She currently works at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie as Project Manager of Urgent Ecologies and Personal Assistant of the Director Bachelor Education.

For seven years now, Joana has had training in Zen-meditation, Kashmir-yoga, breath- and singing techniques and chi cong with Zen Master Carolina Ko-Ran de Ruiter (Zen-Zang Sangha). In 2024 she received a six-months scholarship for an embodiment training at BodyHouse - Centre of Oneness, where she is still involved. In the same year she completed the Level 1 and 2 training of Lewis Deep Democracy, a group facilitation method used to acess and bring out wisdom already present within a group. She also has experience assisting classical tantra trainings at the House of Being.

Feel free to browse this website to get a better picture of her artistic practice and more CV details on LinkedIn