There’s a quiet sort of joy in putting pencil to paper with no pressure to get it “right.” No expectations, no judgment - just a few tables full of strangers, vases of flowers, and a gentle invitation to notice what we see.
On a warm August evening at the wonderful Malavenda Cafè & Bistro in East London, we joined a group of fellow participants for Celebrate Summer in Full Bloom - a relaxed, all-abilities watercolour workshop led by artist and printmaker Sisetta Zappone. With her calm presence and quietly confident teaching style, Sisetta encouraged us to slow down, breathe, and look closely. Not at the blank page, but at the flower in front of us.
We began the session by each picking a flower from the vases Sisetta had brought along. Sunflowers, lilies, berries, large daises - all arranged like a summer bouquet waiting for stories to unfold. Before any paint was opened, we were asked to draw our flower, not by thinking about the lines or the paper, but by looking at the flower itself. As if we were, “crawling like an ant on each petal”.
We were asked to experiment by drawing left-handed - something that felt awkward, at first. “Let’s try drawing with the right side of the brain,” Sisetta encouraged, her voice calm and assured, as if she’d done this a hundred times and still found something new each time. The point wasn’t precision. It wasn’t about neatness or control. It was about slowing down, quieting the thinking brain, and letting something deeper take over. And when we finally looked down, we were surprised to see that our left-handed sketch wasn’t that bad. In fact, it had something our usual drawings often lack: looseness, honesty, a kind of raw observation that only appears when you stop trying to impress the page.
With pencils in hand and eyes locked on petal, stem, and shadow, we explored line, curve, and contour, learning how to trace form with our gaze before our hand. Sisetta introduced cross-hatching, but not in the rigid, classroom sense - she taught it as a dance between line and form. “Cross hatching must follow the shape,” she said, guiding us to think in volume, not just lines.
Moving from pencil to pigment, we took up our brushes and started layering colour onto our watercolour paper (once I worked out which side of the paper so use. It makes a difference you know – another lesson learnt). Here Sisetta’s painterly insight really began to shine. Her approach to watercolour was playful and thoughtful, rooted in strong foundations of contrast and colour theory. For our sunflower, she suggested deep purples in the shadow to make the yellows sing. This wasn’t just technique - it was alchemy.
And throughout, there was encouragement, guidance and demonstrations - not instruction. Tips were gently offered, laughter was frequent, and even small hesitations were met with curiosity rather than correction.
It must be said: 1E Mentmore Café is a gem of a venue. The staff were gracious, attentive, and clearly proud to be part of the evening. With its beautiful food counter, art-laden walls, and calm, easy energy, it served as the ideal backdrop to a creative night out. It didn’t feel like a classroom. It felt more like a Mediterranean café by a vineyard - warm, welcoming, and filled with the quiet hum of people creating.
What made this event sing was its balance: structure without rigidity, technique without pressure, and creativity without judgement. Sisetta Zappone’s background in fine art and printmaking lends a quiet authority, but her teaching style is refreshingly unpretentious. She doesn’t instruct so much as invite - into seeing more closely, drawing more loosely, and enjoying the joyful imperfection of art-making.
Whether you’re a seasoned artist or haven’t picked up a paintbrush since school, this workshop offers a rare thing: a few hours to simply sit, look, and create - no pressure, no performance. Just flowers, watercolour, good people… and a free drink. What’s not to love.
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