Women's exhibition goes behind the mask to promote wellbeing

Inverclyde Women Create looked at the theme of In/Visible as part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival.

The art group, which meets at the Beacon Arts Centre, created a variety of work including colourful masks which are now on display in the Beacon Cafe area.

Jennifer Hunter, the Beacon's community outreach co-ordinator, said: "It's an arts group for local women, including our new Scots women.

"We know that new Scots ladies have weekly language lessons but then go back to their own families and never get the chance to practise their English, so the group was a good way to bring local women and new Scots together."

Jennifer and Gaynor Lochhead, New Scots project co-ordinator got together with the group for a brainstorming sessions to explore the In/Visible theme and what this meant to the group.

Gaynor said: "It was quite emotional. People wear masks every day; it's what's behind those masks that is quite interesting.

"So we decided to make masks of who we are really like inside."

The exhibition was launched on Thursday to coincide with the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, which runs until October 27.

The theme looked at what is means to be visible’ or ‘invisible’ when we think about our mental health.

It asks which aspects of our mental health we keep hidden and which we feel able to share, as well as looking at how people and groups can use the arts and creativity to make mental health more ‘visible’, in a way that engages people and challenges stigma.

Jennifer added: "The group also did self portraits, and didn't look at the paper while they looked at themselves in the mirror.

"They felt the masks were a better way to look at the feelings they wanted to express."

Gaynor said: "I think the masks look amazing."

Other projects in the pipeline include the group making Christmas crafts and being able to sell their work as a social enterprise and then donating some of that money to a local charity.

The display runs until Friday.