Have you ever wanted to Paint and Draw….?

Retirement can be a difficult time, now more than ever with the credit crunch hitting people’s pensions and savings, and in Bristol this can be particularly hard. Much of a person’s social circle( particularly if you’re a man apparently)  is connected to your place of work and trying to create a new life outside of that can seem to many to be  like a mountain to climb requiring a lot of confidence and energy.  Although there are a number of services in Bristol that deal with providing help for retired people much of the funding for these sorts of services, particularly classes is being cut and redirected towards more vocational training.  It seems that there’s not a lot for the recently retired person in Bristol to do  particularly if you don’t have a lot of money or if there is it can be difficult to find.    Art is fairly high on people’s lists of possible retirement activities.  Many people who attend (mainly the daytime classes) have sets of art materials that have been bought for them by their kids but there is still this fear of looking daft or not .being good enough that holds people back.  It can be difficult to get across to people that art can be a relaxing social activity in this context and just as much to do with making new friends as “painting a masterpiece”.  If you’ve just retired and you happen to be one of those people who has a phobia about holding a paint brush to paint with ( as opposed to decorating with !) why not come along and just see.  Most people who say they are no good at art were never taught it as children and you’ll only have to pay for one session if you turn up and it turns out that it’s not for you.