Living Sculpture

Recently I had the pleasure of working with 10 Key Stage 1 gifted and talented pupil’s from a local school. The school has been taking part in the forest schools project that encourages and inspires individuals of any age through positive outdoor experience. The children attending the school have been visiting a local space at Wat Tyler and wanted to create a living sculpture that would be based at their school. The idea for the project stemmed from collecting natural form from around the school grounds through various mediums to create a sculpture. This would be a sculpture that would be designed by the children, constructed by the children and finally nurtured by the children.

So here's what we did.....

Rubbings collected from around the school

At the start of the project we walked around the grounds and used crayons to take rubbings from textured areas. We used our hands to feel whether the surface was smooth, rough, bumpy and then laid our paper over the top and took a rubbing using crayons. Children worked hard to collect as many patterns as they could, filling the whole paper.

Once we collected our rubbings we looked at the various patterns we had found. We then drew these onto a new piece of paper, making them bold and colourful.

Patterns created from the rubbing collected from around the school grounds



Children taking time to observe their natural form object and then drawing on paper

Whilst we collected our rubbings we also collected items from the school ground that had fallen on the ground, such as twigs, leaves, feather etc. We took these objects inside and spent time talking and observing the shapes, colours, textures before completing an observational drawing of the object.



Observational natural form drawing



The children using watercolour to paint observational images of natural form on the canvas



Working out where to place the photos taken by the children on the canvas

Before we started work on our final sculpture we decided to create a  documentary canvas of all our findings. The children printed off photos they had taken, cut squares from their rubbings and natural form drawing and laid these out to complete a canvas. The children decided to use watercolour paint to paint images of natural form in the empty squares. The final touches included cut out of describing words of natural form pieces before gluing on twigs found around the school.



The completed mixed media natural form canvas



The winning design for our living sculpture

The children designed the living sculpture after spending time exploring elements from their drawings, photographs, found objects and rubbings to create a natural form abstract drawing that encompassed patterns and details explored in one single image.
The children chose a design they wanted to make from the final drawings which was of a boat form based on stones and leaves that had been found on the school grounds.



Chicken wire frame covered with newspaper, having a mod roc layer applied



Plaster being added to build up the sculpture form



Painting our Sculpture

The base of the sculpture was made using chicken wire which was then covered with newspaper. Children then applied modroc to the armature adding areas of details and areas for plants to be potted. Finally a layer of plaster was added over the tops for added strength.
Once the sculpture was painted the children planted an arrangement of herbs and cactuses completing the living sculpture that the school community can nurture, observe and enjoy.



Planting herbs in our sculpture



Planting the cactus



The finished sculpture

The Forest Schools has demonstrated success with children of all ages who visit the same local woodlands on a regular basis and through play, who have the opportunity to learn about the natural environment, how to handle risks and most importantly to use their own initiative to solve problems and co-operate with others. Forest School programmes run throughout the year, for about 36 weeks, going to the woods in all weathers (except for high winds). Children use full sized tools, play, learn boundaries of behaviour; both physical and social, establish and grow in confidence, self-esteem and become self motivated.

So Forest Schools will aim to develop:

• Self Awareness
• Self Regulation
• Intrinsic motivation
• Empathy
• Good social communication skills
• Independence
• A positive mental attitude, self-esteem and confidence

To find out more about forest schools have a look on this website http://www.forestschools.com/index.php

Young at Art

This weekend I had the delight of setting up a selection of work completed by some of the very talented children and young people of Basildon in the Eastgate Art Gallery, based on level one of the Eastgate shopping centre. The gallery opened in July 2011 after a long campaign and lots of hard work by the local art community. Supervised and facilitated by volunteers, the Art Gallery provides a platform for professional and amateur artists to showcase their artwork to the wider community.

I thoroughly enjoy working with young minds and watching them develop their talent, problem solving through their creative practice and surprising themselves with their abilities. To have a space for this artwork to be displayed publically, acknowledging the importance of a creative curriculum to children and young people is such a privilege.

The work below has mainly been made as part of a schools art week. Pupils have explored the use of mod roc, collage and found objects to create work as well as gain an appreciation for contemporary artists such as Niki de Saint Phalle, Fiona Rae, Patrick Caulfield, and Damien Hirst to name but a few.

 Arms, made as part of Bardfield Primary's artweek

 Jake the tiger made as part of Fairhouse Infant's art week

 Legs made as part of Bardfield Primary's Art Week

 Mia the panda made as part of Fairhouse Infant's art week

 Sitting yoga figure made as part of Bardfield primary's art week

 Nellie the elephant made as part of Fairhouse Infants art week

 Birds made from found objects as part of Eversley Primary's art week

 Primary paint palette, made as part of Everlsey Primary's art week

 Four Corners made at Fairhouse Infants as part of their Uk day

The sculptures in the gallery window of the Eastgate Art Gallery.

To find out more have a look at http://www.eastgateshoppingcentre.com/basildon-eastgate-art-bea-set-to-open.aspx

If you would like to find out more about an art week for your school, or art projects for your organisation please contact Lisa Smith on lisamart@hotmail.co.uk

Endangered species

This blog is all about showcasing some of the outstanding young artists that I have had the opportunity to work with recently. This year I have prepared, planned and delivered ten art weeks across the schools in Basildon. All the Art weeks have been designed around each schools theme or agenda focusing on the following aims :

• To raise confidence and aspirations of young people.
• To provide a wide range of opportunities to all students irrespective of age or ability.
• To promote community cohesion within the school – bringing the school and local community together through art projects.
• To create a strong student involvement in the steering of Art Week work.
• To enhance Art development, level of risk taking and promote new ideas and techniques.
• To support economic well being by providing a range of ideas that are accessible and affordable

The images on this blog are from the Art week delivered at Fairhouse Community Infant School. The objective for this project was to create 6 sculptures of endangered species which are the names of each of the classes within the school - Orang-utan's Panda's, Tiger's, Eagle's,  Elephant's and Turtle's. I wanted the pupils of the school to explore a variety of approaches and experiment with ideas, information and resources in order to develop project intentions.

I worked with each class to build their sculpture using traditional sculptural materials such as chicken wire and mod roc. With the help of the pupils we made the basic shapes out of chicken wire, then covered these with newspaper and padded areas out where appropriate, finally covering the sculpture in modroc. During the process we spent time comparing and commenting on differing ideas, methods and approaches used by artists, crafts people and designers to create art work; relating to the context in which the work is made.

The method of constructing the sculptures involved a range of processes that enabled each child to participate regardless of their age or ability. Pupils needed to apply numeracy skills to work to scale and create the basic shapes for each animal. Some pupils enjoyed the tactile quality of applying the modroc and generally getting messy. Whilst other that felt confident in their painting skills had the opportunity to shine, applying marks and images to the sculpture.

Here are some images that show the making process and the final products produced during this week.

          Delicately placing mod roc onto the newspaper covering the frame.

 Making the turtle armature and frame using chicken wire,

cardboard, newspaper and a lot of tape!

 All the sculptures were painted to represent the animals natural habitat. The children discussed where the animals live and like to be and painted this onto the sculpture using acrylic paint

 All of the sculptures were given names as they were worked on by the children. Here you can see Jake the Tiger being painting. During the painting process the children explored mark making, blending techniques and how to mix colours.

 In this picture you can see Mia the Panda being painted. The children chose to paint Bamboo and small pandas onto the sculpture. Can you see the painted pandas on the table cloth? I demonstrated how to use simple brush strokes to create a panda and then the children practiced on the cloth before they painted on the sculpture. In this picture you can see one child practicing and one child painting directly onto the panda. This built the children's confidence and showed them how effective it can be to use delicate marks and make full use of the brush.

 The finished African Elephant. I love the simple design on this sculpture.

The children decided to paint our Nellie like a sun set and then

 add images of African people and plants onto the sculpture.

 Here is the finished Tiger Jake, he is decorated with a range of Jungle plants and animals.

Even the parents joined in painting this piece!

 A beautiful sky with a stunning tree was painted onto the Eagle. Using a limited palette the children blended the colours fantastically to create a really sublime background. If you look closely in the tree you may even see a couple of eagles perched on the branches.

 The completed bamboo painted panda.

 I love the small delicate pandas painted on this sculpture and the contrast of colours. The letters on the head of the panda should be F C I S, for Fairhouse Community Infant School.

 The reception children painted this sparkly underwater scene on Bert the turtle.

We had great fun singing under the water songs while painting and sprinkling glitter

- creating a range of exotic fish and seaweed to decorate our turtle.

 For some reason I don't have a picture of our rain forest Orangutan, but if you look at this group picture you will see him in the centre of the group.

Prior to the art week, I carried out a training session with staff at the school demonstrating how to use mod roc and create relief designs. Alongside the animal sculpture project the teachers led an additional activity. Every child was presented with a wooden circle to complete their own uniquea design on with each class focusing on a different theme from under the sea, sunflowers, letters and alphabets, aliens and landmarks. Using art straws, rolled paper and masking tape the teachers helped the children created their designs and then covered them using modroc. These were then decorated using a range of mixed media.

The circles are going to be displayed inside and outside the school in small groupings.

Some of the finished circles are pictured below.

 How fabulous do these numbers look created by the receptions children?

These are going to be displayed in the garden and used as a learning aid.

 Multi coloured sunflowers and sparkly under the water sea scenes.

If you would like to find out more about having an Art Week project at your school, please contact me through my website http://www.lisasmith.uk.com/



Mission Complete

What a busy week! As mentioned in my previous blog I have been working with a local school as part of their health awareness Art Week. Our mission was to complete 8 sculptures in the style of artist Niki De Saint Phalle. The children chose to make 2 figures, a heart, a pair of lungs, feet, a head (love the spiky hair), legs and arms. As you can see from the picture below we completed our bright and brilliant sculptures in the glorious sunshine on Wednesday.

 As part of the week the children learnt new methods of making sculpture, and got to work as a team, develop their painting skills and have a lot of fun. This project provided a great opportunity for the school to work slightly off curriculum for a week and embrace their creativity. The children led the project from start to finish working on problem solving, confidence, material selection, decoration and use of colour.

 Sitting figure

 Spiky Head

Legs

Art Challenge

What a fantastic week I have had! On Wednesday I started an art  project in a local school as part of their health awareness week. Our mission - to create 8 sculptures influenced by the amazing work of Niki de Saint Phalle (as pictured above). Working with 11 classes from reception to year 6 pupils we planned, prepared and started making our sculptures. The aim of the week was for pupils to gain an understanding of how the body works, the food groups and to discuss healthy lifestyles. For our part we decided to make sculptures of various parts of the body, which include, two full figures, a heart, arms, legs, lungs, feet and head. The project started with pupils learning a little about of inspirational artist, looking at the colours, patterns and forms used in Niki De Saint Phalles' work. 

 Pupils had a go at drawing their own patterns and shapes that could be used to embellish their classes sculpture. It never ceases to amaze me how imaginative children can be and during this process they created a multitude or exciting lines, shapes and patterns in many different arrangements. I always try to make sure that the children are not introduced to images of artists work until they have had the opportunity to create their own images first. I find if I show pictures prior to this, you end up with a number of children reproducing the art work shown - and for me this does not inspire the creative thinking and problems solving skills I want to evoke from the children I work with.

 In a small amount of time, with a few pupils chicken wire armatures were made of all the sculptures.

 The children then had great fun getting creative and messy covering the armatures with newspaper, cello tape and mod roc.

 The children loved exploring how to make a sculpture using materials that they do  not always have access to in a school environment. As young artists the children completely embraced creating forms, making textured surfaces and learning about the making process.  

 Once the sculpture was completely covered in mod roc and left to set the children started to paint their designs onto their sculptures using acrylic paint. As you can see from the picture below they are starting to look amazing.

I am hoping the children involved in this project are learning new techniques in creating and making sculptures, gaining confidence in their own ability, learning to work as a team and realising the art has many cross curriculum links (although we are using maths, literacy, PSE - the pupils are so focused on making their sculptures they are not realising it - yet!)

 So three days in, all eight sculptures are made and 3 have started to be embellished. Hopefully next Wednesday I will be posting pictures of all the final sculptures.