The Isle of Man Arts Council is holding workshops to support the forthcoming ‘Big Splash’ art trail.

Artist Jade Boylan is hosting the workshops, and has also created ‘Splash’, her own dolphin. Here she explains her own role in the project.

As part of the Isle of Man Arts Council’s annual ‘Arts in the Arcade’ programme, the ‘paint your own dolphin’ workshops are a great opportunity for people of all ages to come along and have a go at painting their own mini dolphin and get involved with ‘The Big Splash’ project.

While the sessions themselves are free, workshop attendees will be able to purchase their own mini dolphin sculpture to paint and decorate however they like using paints and materials provided, with all proceeds going to Hospice.

Some of the talented local artists who have worked on full size dolphins for ‘The Big Splash’ trail will be on hand at the workshops to assist anyone who wants to paint their own mini dolphin.

Places for the workshops are limited to 20 per session, they are open to all ages and can be booked via the link shared on the Arts Council facebook page.

The dates/times for the Saturday workshops are 10am to 12pm and 1pm to 3pm on May 14 and 21 and June 25.

As chair of the visual art and literature panel for the Arts Council and as a working artist myself, it’s incredibly important to me that we are able to offer creative workshops like these to the local community, art should be accessible for everyone no matter what and this also includes chances to create art.

The past two years have proven how important the arts are for people’s wellbeing, during the various lockdowns most people turned to the arts to help them get through it whether they realised it or not.

If you spent your lockdown watching movies, reading books, listening to music, playing video games, dancing or getting creative in any way, shape or form, then you benefitted from the arts.

I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to paint the Arts Council dolphin, fondly known as ‘Splash’, for the trail.

I was also the first local artist to get to paint a full size dolphin and was honoured that ‘Splash’ was used to launch the project at the start of the year.

The colourful design was inspired by childhood art classes, when the goal wasn’t to be neat and careful but to just have fun and get messy with paint.

Ironically the painting process itself was quite painstaking using acrylic paint and spray paint, but that may just be because I’m a perfectionist. The end result is bright and eye-catching and hopefully ‘Splash’ will encourage people of all ages to get creative and have a go at some colourful artwork of their own.

More information can be found at www.iomarts.com

Places on the workshops for this weekend are sold out, but places are still available for the next two sessions.