17 Apr 2027 | An Introduction to El Duende One-Canvas Process Painting | In-Person Day Workshop
A one-day experiential workshop exploring the creative potential of staying with one canvas.
El Duende One-Canvas Process Painting is an experiential approach that invites the client to remain with a single canvas over time, allowing the artwork to evolve through layers, change, disruption, response, and reflection.
As in all art therapy, the emphasis is on the process rather than the finished product. Rather than working towards a finished image, the focus is on noticing what emerges, responding to what is already there, and allowing the artwork to develop through an ongoing relationship and dialogue with the canvas.
This one-day workshop offers participants an introduction to the principles of El Duende One-Canvas Process Painting through a combination of theoretical input, clinical examples, experiential art-making, reflection, and discussion.
Participants will have the opportunity to experience the process firsthand, beginning and returning to the same canvas over the course of the day. The workshop will create space to explore the relationship between creative process, self-reflection, and clinical practice.
There will also be an opportunity to consider how this approach might be applied within therapy, supervision, reflective practice, and group wellbeing work.
The day will include:
• An introduction to the origins and principles of El Duende One-Canvas Process Painting
• Exploration of the potential applications of the approach within therapeutic and reflective practice
• Clinical examples illustrating its use within individual therapy
• Experiential art-making using one canvas
• Time to leave and return to the artwork, responding to its development over time
• Individual and group reflection
• Optional sharing and group witnessing of artwork
• Discussion of potential applications within therapy, supervision, reflective practice, and staff wellbeing
No particular artistic skill or experience is required. The focus of the workshop is on engaging with the creative process rather than producing a finished artwork.
All art materials will be provided.
Who is the workshop for?
The workshop is suitable for art psychotherapists, art therapy trainees, counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals with an interest in experiential arts-based practice and reflective processes.
Facilitator:
Jacqueline Winter Kottler is an HCPC-registered art therapist with clinical experience across NHS, private hospital, and private practice settings in the UK and USA.
Within a large NHS Trust, Jacqueline established and delivered an art therapy service for staff as part of the Trust’s psychological support services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work supported staff experiencing burnout, trauma, moral injury, stress, and compassion fatigue. Alongside this work, Jacqueline provided individual and group art therapy across multiple NHS hospital settings, including geriatric, neurology, and stroke services.
Supporting NHS staff continues to be a significant part of her private practice, Recharge Make Art, where she builds on this experience and her interest in how art therapy can create space for reflection, connection, and recovery from the demands of clinical work.
In the USA, Jacqueline worked as part of an inpatient psychology treatment team, providing art therapy to adults experiencing a range of mental health difficulties and substance use issues.
Jacqueline first encountered El Duende One-Canvas Process Painting during her art therapy training within group supervision facilitated by Abbe Miller, the creator of the approach. Since qualifying, she has continued to explore the process through clinical practice, reflective study, and ongoing professional dialogue, incorporating it into her individual art therapy practice and developing its application within group and reflective practice. settings.