Watercourse Way

Watercourse Way is an Arts Council England funded Salt Road project, inviting artists and workshop participants to evoke and embody watery bodies; the bottom of the sea, the banks of a river, seaweed, algae, fish, insects, birds, polluted or stagnant water, rising sea levels, oil spills, ice, glaciers, lakes, ponds, streams, bogs, canals, glaciers, islands, or human and animal bodies, which are 60% water.

The River Watchers, Sally Payen, 2025, oil on canvas, 170cm by 130cm
The Watercourse (extract), Sally Payen, 2025, watercolour on unbleached watercolour paper

Research streams

“The pervasive metaphor of water… Water as the highest good. Water is a metaphor for the Way (the Dao) or the source and power that sustains the world. For example the sage will go around obstacles rather than aggressively confront them – just like water,” Alan Watts, Tao: Watercourse Way.