colourscape

300+ participants got involved with Colourscape, inspired by Howard Hodgkin: Painting India at The Hepworth Wakefield. A weekend of outdoor drop-in workshops for families, arranging fabric and play equipment in response to Hodgkin's bold, gestural paintings.

 Concentration & focus

 Mother & child (hidden under the fabric)

 Play equipment Hodgkin

 Flying colour

 Team work

I like pink

out & about - celebration

Our Out & About celebration was a chance for the three schools; Airedale Academy, De lacy Academy and Wakefield City Academy to gather in The Hepworth Wakefield learning studios and share their experiences. The studios were buzzing with gallery staff and participants friends and family. Pupils voiced project highlights, certificates were presented and we clapped and cheered! Meaningful connections are made with the schools and I hope this leads to future creative collaboration with THW. Proud!

 

 Muddy handmade sketchbooks

Waiting for the schools to arrive!

out & about 2017 - film

Very proud to share this brilliant film documenting Out & About 2017 by Nick Singleton. In an unobtrusive and sensitive way, Nick captured the mood and delight of this fantastic project - thank you!

Click here: Out & About 2017 film

summer term - year 5 at drew primary

My final half term at Drew Primary School was spent with the y5 pupils, so I ended my year as I began, in their classrooms. The city of London inspired our art exploration and Drew's young Londoners studied the iconic Tube map, considered our connections to the rest of the world from London City Airport (situated next to the school) and used memories and experiences to add depth to their work. We drew, painted, mark made, cut, collaged, looked, listened, learned tricks, short cuts and creative techniques, rising to the challenge of each activity.

My two years at Drew Primary have been full of learning, I've enjoyed working with the whole school and it's been a privilege to open the doorway into art/thinking/expressing/connecting with these precious children, the future creators of our city, our world. Thanks for having me!

 The London Eye in vibrant ink

 Firework!

 Tuning into our surroundings

 Mass drawing of London City Airport DLR station

 London landmarks

 Bold painting

summer term - years 2 & 4 at drew primary

Another half term has flown and four classes at Drew have created AMAZING art. Y2 inspiration was provided by One Night, Far From Here, a beautifully poetic book about creatures and their habitats, the children were fascinated as we traveled the world from the Russian Tiaga to the Amazon rainforest. We drew, painted, learned basic colour theory, printed onto paper and acetate, laminated sparkly collages and created animal masks. 

One Night, Far From Here contains cleverly printed transparent pages which layer to reveal and create depth - so (of course!) the idea of the art sandwich was born! The children's final piece layered a painted fabric background, a printed acetate sheet and a laminated drawing decorated with sparkles, paper clipped together to form a book-like artwork that the children loved. 

Sometimes, at the beginning of our lessons children would quietly tell me they remembered words like acrylic, acetate, laminate, words as poetic as the book itself.

I took a deep breath before challenging the y4 classes to sew! I was a Rat! or The Scarlet Slippers is a book with an old-fashioned feel, of unkind treatment of children, dubious Victorian Sideshows and fairytales... Children's faces were transformed using school photographs and collage cut from images of rats, we created posters to advertise these fearsome rat children - studying vintage fonts, experimenting with line and ink and finally mastering running stitch, button stitch and blanket stitch to produce rat embroideries.

What I asked of the y4 children wasn't easy, especially sewing, but they tried and persevered, the more able stitchers assisting their classmates. The lessons were chaotic but embroideries emerged and some children surprised themselves with new found skills, a couple of children who had previously struggled shone and achieved. The teachers also got to brush up on their sewing skills!!!

Lynx mask and careful hands

Ocelot in the Amazon

Laminated layer for our art sandwiches!

 Year 2 zoo - roar!

Beware - Rat Girl!

 Capturing a nostalgic feel using ink and tooth picks

 Beautifully executed blanket stitch - well done!

 Even running stitch & perfectly attached button from a boy who had never sewn before

spring term - years 1 & 3 at drew primary

Lots to fit into a short term... the y1 and y3 classes drew, painted, printed, formed, folded and constructed at Drew Primary School. Project inspiration was gathered from the pages of Grace and Family and The Pebble in my Pocket: A History of our Earth. When asked to share their thoughts the y1 classes surprised me with the range of favourite activities - they loved drawing their families, creating designs for crocodile stamps, looking at Dutch wax fabrics and creating patterns, printing and cutting out their colourful card crocodiles - their responses were sweet and thoughtful. Some y3's were a little disappointed by the chemical eruptions created inside their volcano models, I think they were expecting real lava!!! I'll be working with the y2 & y4 classes after Easter... watch this space!

 2D to 3D - fast sculpture

 Volcanos taking shape - busy hands!

 Team work

Water + washing-up liquid + baking soda + food colouring + vinegar = eruption!

Careful, thoughtful patterns

 Energy

 Beautiful repeat print by a y1 pupil

Printed crocodile

Googly eyes + 5 year old = pure happiness!

spring term - years 2 & 4 at drew primary

Drawing, painting, cutting, construction and clay with y2 and y4 classes at Drew Primary School. A Necklace of Raindrops and Varjak Paw provided our jumping off points! These story books are treasure troves of creative potential and we stretched this potential to the fullest learning new art techniques and using unfamiliar materials. The children embraced my expectations and the challenges set for them, filling their art books to bursting with their imaginative work. After half term I'll return to years 1 and 3 for more literacy inspired art.

Happy yellow cat

 Shadow puppets

Painted papers, cut and carefully placed in repeat

 Painting technique - holding the brush still and turning the egg!

The Tigris River with fine brushes and ink

Teamwork

 Beautiful art book page

Collaboration inspired by Bastet, Egyptian cat goddess

autumn term - years 1 & 3 at drew primary

Cardboard shenanigans with teeny tiny y1 pupils and weave and illustration using silhouette with not so tiny y3 pupils at Drew Primary School. The books that inspired us were On Sudden Hill and Tales of Wisdom and Wonder. In the spring term I'll work and learn alongside the y2 and y4 classes taking inspiration from another two fantastic books. I love mixing art and literacy and the children love it too.

 Design for an incredible monster creature box thing!

 Cardboard self portraits

 Warp and weft (and proud hands)

 Box monsters with rattling tummies (secret ingredient - buttons!)

 Cardboard crowns for kings and queens

Lion silhouette, background inspired by West African Kente cloth

year 1

Working with the youngest children in school is a powerful reminder of the wonder available in everyday life. Witnessing the children's joy and willingness to get stuck in, have a go, to become absorbed in the feel, texture, colour of something. Noticing the way they repeat an action, becoming so focused and in a flash, unfocused. Whatever needed to be expressed/learnt has been processed and its time to move on. There is an ebb and flow in each child, quiet contained intent and then a desire to share and show. I adore their lack of self criticism, their lack of judgement around good or bad, their sparkly delighted eyes because they successfully glued a red shape to a piece of cardboard.

consider, discuss, select

The final days of our project, A September To Remember at The Hepworth Wakefield have flown by. Last week we spent a day on the Yorkshire Moors with walk leader Pete, learning about compass readings and taking bearings. This week we've worked in the learning studio with a focus of making, considering and selecting work for exhibition. The consensus is our show is not about an end point, it celebrates how far we have come and hints at continuation. With this in mind the title Until The Far Distance suggests onward momentum and facing the future. During an intensive three weeks we brought together a group of people who had never met before, who were not aware of Richard Long's work and challenged them to create artworks in physical and exciting ways - walking, looking, listening, responding, measuring, making, taking photos, drawing, creating text, discussing. This week we designed and distributed invites, considered curation and marketing, created interpretation text and planned skills sharing workshops led by the young people during the celebration event for the show. Seven participants started and seven remained for the whole process, an amazing journey with learning for all of us, not just the young people.

Until The Far Distance opens in Gallery 6 on 2nd Of October and runs until the 7th October (gallery open 10am-5pm). Join us on the 5th October between 4pm-7pm for a celebration event with refreshments and art activities led by the young artists themselves.

 Getting our bearings

 Recording the landscape

What could go where? Visual thinking for our exhibition

 Word clouds created with Wordle

Flakes of clay fallen from the groups drawings

Working wall - to be exhibited in the picnic area next to the learning studios