Guest Blog | Art-For-Wellbeing With Medley

07 October 2025 — jessica-bailey

We spoke with Isobel Murdoch, artist and founder of Medley, an organisation focused on art-for-wellbeing, set up in 2020. Through online art sessions, you can explore how doing something creative can help you feel calmer and more connected – offering an online space where anyone can experience the restorative power of making art.

In this blog, Isobel shares the story behind Medley, how art can become a tool for wellbeing, and why you don’t need to be an artist to benefit.

“Medley is an art-for-wellbeing online initiative, set up in 2020. I run art challenges, lead a monthly Zoom art-for-wellbeing group open to all, lead a weekly Teams art and craft group for an NHS Care Foundation Trust, and lead bespoke workshops, for example for a Stroke Association group and a chronic pain support group. In 2023 I won The Big Draw Festival 2021’s Guest Panellists’ Choice Award.

In 2024 I undertook a development project funded by Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice, entitled Paint Your Mind: Art As Tool. I have since produced and now sell an art-for-wellbeing training course developed out of this project, as well as another training course on how to use famous paintings to open up conversations around wellbeing and mental health.

Medley navigates wellbeing issues through visual art, and the myriad ways visual art can root, ground, express, absorb and connect – using drawing, painting, word art, photography and craft.

By far the most rewarding aspect of running Medley is seeing and hearing how taking part in art-for-wellbeing activities enhances participants’ lives, calming anxiety, stilling and absorbing people in creativity, opening up time and space away from illness or any issues that dominate their lives, or simply raising a smile and laughing as a group. I still remember the very first time a participant shared a drawing and how doing this had helped her set aside negative thoughts for a while. Over the years that’s gone on, this has happened with different participants, and it’s fantastic to see.

Art can help in so many different ways. For someone experiencing the anxiety, fear and complex emotions that cancer can unleash, it can be a tool, a practical way of expressing feelings through symbols, journaling, or visualisation. But it can also be a haven, a refuge, where appointments and scans can recede, while you draw or paint something you enjoy, on any theme at all. If concentration is an issue, then quick art ideas can be more practical. Creativity can also be beneficial for sleep problems.

One issue that can prevent people experimenting with art-for-wellbeing is summed up by four words I hear a lot: “But I can’t draw”. And yet there are so many different ways to be creative. Using colours, creating an abstract pattern, colouring, doing collage or assemblage or any craft, word art, zentangling, drawing outlines or silhouettes…there truly is something for everyone, and that’s what I would say to anyone who feels that art is not for them. There are no rules.

Medley is funded by occasional grant funding (such as the Arts Council England grant) and from some activities, such as the training courses: Paint Your Mind or Conversations.

At the end of the day, what it’s all about is experimenting, creating and sharing – experiencing how art can enrich and enhance life, even in the worst times.”

You can read more about Medley, book a session, or get in touch about bespoke workshops via the website at www.medley.live/contact. To find other cancer services in your area, please search on Cancer Care Map’s homepage using your postcode.