Drawing Smiles

What beautiful work Rosie is producing thanks to the creativity and guidance from community artist Sarah! Drawing Smiles is very lucky to have Sarah as one of our art therapy providers.

Crosby based ‘Drawing Smiles’ is the most wonderful charity. Inspired by a combination of love and loss, they provide art therapists and community artists, like myself, to visit young people who may need some creative support in their life. I’m honoured to be part of this beautiful project.

I love seeing this Georgia O’Keeffe inspired piece develop each week. The tailor made colours of the Calla Lilies are so calm and tranquil. Thank you again to Drawing Smiles for making Tuesday’s so special. Having this therapeutic support each week is a real reason for some to get up and go, a normality we sometimes take for granted.

Some really impressive artwork here! Thank you Sarah for providing the art therapy and helping such lovely pieces to be created!

Here’s a couple of pictures of some creative work done by another of our budding artists! Thanks again to our art therapist Amanda for providing this artist with the help they needed and allowing their talent to come to light.

We are excited to announce that one of our budding artists will be doing an exhibition for his friends and family this Wednesday! Stay tuned for more pictures of his artwork next week…

We are beyond grateful to have received a grant from the SJP Charitable Foundation! It is donations like this that allow us to continue providing new artists with the therapy they need and deserve. Thank you so much to SJP for helping us continue to make a difference, and a special thanks to Sanderson Clare Financial Solutions for their assistance!

Hello all, we're happy to announce that we've recently finished working with another young budding artist who has benefited immensely from the service we provide.

This particular child experienced a lot of school-based anxiety, and these art therapy sessions aimed to assist them in building their confidence and supporting their re-engagement with school.

Thanks to the incredible work by our art therapist Amanda, they were able to gain a love for art and despite some initial nerves, they were able to gain confidence and happiness through these sessions. It is so rewarding to observe how these art therapy sessions can make such a difference, and improve the recipient's wellbeing in such a significant way.

Thank you so much for your continued support, especially as donations fund such crucial work. We've attached a couple of lovely pieces by this budding artist, and we wish them luck for the future!

Thanks again, we will be back soon with an exciting new update.

We’re aware that we haven’t posted in a while, but we promise we haven’t gone anywhere! One of our trustees has been busy organising a sponsored hike of the 22-mile Edale Skyline Walk to raise funds for Drawing Smiles. They completed the walk on 15th April and managed to raise £3000 in the process, which is significantly more than the original target of £1000.

We are hoping the money raised will be able to sponsor around 8-10 aspiring artists, which is an amazing achievement. Well done to those who participated, it wasn’t easy but the resulting success is just phenomenal. We can’t thank those who donated towards the hike enough, it is you who made this happen after all.

We hope to be able to organise a similar fundraising event in the future, and we’ll have more updates on the progress of our efforts shortly. Thanks again to all those involved!

It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything, but we can assure you this isn’t because we haven’t been providing art therapy to deserving groups and individuals!

Drawing Smiles and our art therapy providers have recently been working with budding artists who preferred to stay anonymous.

We have also been providing art therapy (thanks to Amanda Griffiths) to Euan, a pupil at a secondary school in Sefton. He has produced an amazing portfolio of work: ranging from fantasy stop animation to models and drawings. Euan is partially sighted and has Asperger’s, and he has thrived due to the one-to-one encouragement with Amanda. He was very proud to display his at an exhibition, kindly organised by Amanda. Many of Euan’s friends and family attended, along with some Drawing Smiles trustees. Below are some images from the exhibition for you to enjoy!

Thanks so much to Amanda Griffiths for providing the therapy, as well as Localgiving ‘Magic Stars’ who continue to provide funding to allow this important work to continue.

Amazing work from Oliver, we’re so happy to have helped another child gain confidence and happiness through art, and all thanks to Creative Balance for providing this opportunity.

Well done to Oliver for making his Mum proud with the exhibition, keep up the fabulous work!

This wouldn’t be possible without our private donators as well as funding from Localgiving so thanks to them too.