The Marks We Leave

A creative experience for you, by yourself or with friends.

Paula Dunn x Saltaire Inspired

Fancy trying something creative, experimenting with colour and texture, and becoming part of something bigger?

Led by internationally-acclaimed, Saltaire-based artist Paula Dunn, The Marks We Leave creative taster workshops invite you to become part of an ambitious new collaborative artwork, bringing together hundreds of people from across West Yorkshire to create a vibrant exhibition at Salts Mill.

Not painted since school? Curious about oils and cold wax but not sure where to start? No experience is needed and you certainly don’t need to consider yourself an artist. These short, half-day workshops are designed to be an enjoyable introduction to creative mark-making, with plenty of opportunity to experiment, play with colour and discover the possibilities of working with paint and texture.

With all materials, guidance and equipment provided, you’ll be encouraged to explore your own ideas, create your own abstract landscape to take home, while adding your own creative marks to larger paintings inspired by Bradford’s remarkable landscapes and the places we call home. Your contribution will become part of an exhibition in one of the area’s most iconic cultural spaces.

It’s a chance to try something new, make something together and be part of something that reaches far beyond the workshop itself. And there’s an added benefit: every workshop booking helps fund free creative workshops for local charities and grassroots organisations, bringing the joy of making art to people who might not otherwise have the opportunity.

MORE INFO AND HOW TO BOOK

Join hundreds of local people from across West Yorkshire to create a vibrant new art exhibition at Salts Mill as part of Saltaire Arts Trail 2027. 

The Marks We Leave is a large-scale, collaborative project that explores the evolving landscape of Bradford through colour, texture, and community engagement. Led by local artist Paula Dunn, the project invites people from across the district to co-create paintings using oils and cold wax. Each painting will carry the distinct imprint of its maker, contributing to a collective artwork that reflects shared memory, identity, and a sense of place. 

As one of the UK’s most culturally diverse cities, Bradford is shaped by a wide range of voices and lived experiences. It is also defined by its remarkable natural environment—an abundance of green spaces, woodlands, and moorland, including the newly designated Bradford Pennine Gateway National Nature Reserve. This project celebrates both the city’s social diversity and its unique landscapes, inviting individual acts of mark-making that express personal connections to land, memory, and community.

Participants will work with oils and cold wax—a medium that invites layering, scraping, and richly textured expression. Within a supportive workshop environment, participants will be encouraged to explore colour, pattern, and mark-making in response to their personal experiences of the local landscape. More importantly they will be encouraged to play! Participants will produce a series of small, abstract works on paper while also contributing to the foundation layers of larger collaborative paintings. These collaborative pieces will later be developed by the artist into large-scale abstract landscapes inspired by Saltaire and the Bradford Pennine Gateway National Nature Reserve.

The culmination of the project will be a brand new exhibition at Salts Mill as part of Saltaire Arts Trail 2027 opening on the bank holiday weekend 1-3 May 2027 then open for the rest of May.

All workshops run 10am-12.30pm

JANUARY 2027
Saturday 16 & Sunday 17
Saturday 23 & Sunday 24
Saturday 30 & Sunday 31

FEBRUARY 2027
Saturday 13 & Sunday 14
Saturday 20 & Sunday 21

Workshop Format

- 2.5 hours of workshop time 

- free parking at Salts Mill

- workshops take place in a space at Salts Mill not normally open to the general public

- each participant will create a mini abstract landscape and contribute to four mosaic paintings 

- each participant will create a mini landscape to take away with them 

- Not suitable for children under 16. People aged 16 and 17 must book to attend with an adult over 18.

Pricing

All tuition and materials included. 

£35 per person

By booking a workshop for you will also be supporting Paula and Saltaire Inspired to offer another free workshop to local charities and grassroots organisations whose service users might not normally have the means or opportunity to take part.