Wallop!

Posts Tagged ‘art club’

Knocking on new doors

25 April 2012

Yesterday I was actually quite happy to be out in the rain with my partner in crime, Kathy Mason, installing the results of a very lovely project. We were surreptitiously fixing and hiding  a complete set of miniature doors and windows recently completed by the year 6 pupils from my weekly art class, into the early years garden area of their school. The idea being that the youngest members of the school might then stumble across these ‘Borrowers’ styled dwellings and they can be incorporated in imaginative play and also used for storytelling and outdoor lessons.

The project was a joy to work on, both for the enthusiasm of the older children to create the pieces and the anticipation of their being able to display them in such a delightful way. As these children will be leaving the school this year, they have also left a little legacy behind for their younger friends.

The process involved a session of discussion and design, considering the characters who would live behind each door. The doors were then cut out of clay according to the initial designs and embellishments added, before first firing. The children finally coloured their pieces and they were whisked away by Kathy to be fired ready for installation. The final part of the project for the older participants of this project will be some map drawing sessions of the ’secret’ locations of all the pieces now that they are in situ.


Celebrating Dot Day with doodles

16 September 2010

I recently discovered the work of the author / illustrator Peter Reynolds, after a recommendation on Twitter. He’s a rather inspirational artist (and founder of FableVision.) I’d enjoyed his work previously on the covers of the Judy Moody series of books written by Megan McDonald, but it was only through Twitter, that I found his work aimed at a younger audience.

The recommendation was for Peter’s books, ‘Dot‘ and ‘Ish‘. I read them to my own children and the story of the characters discovering their artistic potential has proven motivational not only for them, but it’s also stuck in my mind and has become a very helpful tool in the art workshops that I teach also.

All too often, I hear ‘I’m rubbish at art, I can’t draw….’ and I spend much of my time encouraging children to ‘give it a go’, not to rely on constant rubbing out and starting again, and to have confidence in their mark making. A lack of confidence seems to be such a big issue in teaching primary-school age children art skills. It always surprises me.I was delighted then, when I discovered that yesterday, September 15th was ‘Dot Day‘.

It’s the anniversary of ‘Dot’ being published and arty folk from all over the world  celebrated by doing something ‘Dottish’.

Our little corner of the UK, joined in too – with my year 6 art club group ‘Saving the Dots with doodles’. We enjoyed a series of fun doodling excersises, to warm up for class. Each one started with a blank square of card and simple dot. The children were timed for a minute, then 3 minutes, then more…. and challenged to come up with doodles that all started with that one simple dot. The class was fun…. and loud and everyone had a great time. The class began with everyone fired up for more – What better way to start off a new term? so thanks are owed to ‘Dot’ for proving a very good starting point.

S’cuse the pun. Point. Dot. geddit? No. Never mind…. ;-)

A formula for speedy portrait painting

21 June 2010

I teach a weekly children’s art club at my local primary school. It’s a pretty fulfilling pastime and as a working artist, is an opportunity not only to nurture early talent and relish in the untainted enthusiasm for what you love to do, but also keeps you on your toes – learning yourself and rethinking what makes art work…

A classic example of this is a recent project I have worked on with Yr3 and Yr4 children, who range in age from 7 to 9. The fundamental challenge of a primary school art workshop is the very limited time you have, combined with the very real need for children of this age range to ‘achieve’ something visible and concrete within that space of time in order to feed their enthusiasm and desire to continue.

This term we have been working on self portraits, from very quick, fun, drawing exercises to get the children to understand proportion and placement of features, through to creating 3D models in clay of their own faces without using mirrors but by just feeling their own features (Messy but FUN)

The most successful class though, I have to say, so far has been working the children though a very formulaic approach to painting a portrait, where we all worked together, one step at a time, using simple painted shapes on identical squares of board. Initially, I wasn’t sure how successful this approach could be, but the aim was to create a series of Julian Opie styled portraits. The simplest pieces always seem to be the most effective and this was certainly the case here. By removing all areas of anxiety: no shading, no contours, no details whatsoever…. just simple shapes, flat colour and correctly placed but over-simplified features. The results were lovely, really lovely. Each child, however intimidated by art they may have been prior to the sessions, managed to not only create a recognizable self portrait but more importantly, every single child left the room that day with a big fat grin on their faces!

Turns out using a tried and tested formula to create art isn’t always such a bad thing afterall….

©2013 Wallop Commercial Art & Design Ltd. All Rights Reserved.