Healthy Eating Shed

This amazing shed was designed and painted by the talented pupils of Fairhouse Infant School as part of their Healthy Lifestyles week.

For the project we decided that we needed to liven and brighten up the shed in the playground and turn it into a work of art. Working with small groups of children at a time we draw sketches of images we would like to use thinking about exercise and healthy eating.

Vocabulary:

Mural, medium, texture, colour, healthy, collaborative, design

What we used:

• Picture frames
• Acrylic paint
• Paintbrushes & water
• Pencils and paper

What we did:

The children worked in small groups to design their images they wanted painted on the shed. We thought about healthy eating and exercise and how we could merge these together. This resulted in fruit becoming people and people becoming fruit.

Once We had a few designs we discussed which parts we liked and which parts we would like to take forward into the final design.

We decided that some of the drawings were so good that they should be created into works of art in their own right and used this as a opportunity to practice using acrylic paint on wood. The children worked in small groups to paint the image onto a wooden board using acrylic paint.

Once the final design for the shed was agreed I painted on the black outline for the painting

The children then carefully took their time and concentrated on their brush stroke applying the paint to the sheds surface, ensuring no gaps were left and their brush strokes all went in the same direction

Details such as flowers, butterflies and windows were added by the gifted and talented pupils

Finally the black lines were added to the work and a layer of varnish was applied to protect the shed from the elements.

If you are interested in finding out more information on my art work, murals or commissioning a project, please contact lisamart@hotmail.co.uk

Team Spirit Mural

The finished mural with the motto "Together Everyone Achieves More" The first letters of which spell TEAM

Taking the theme of “Team” lastweek I spent time working with pupils from Ghyllgrove Juniors to create a 16 ft mural that will adorn the school bike shed.

The pupils started the week working on designs inspired by what they most liked about their school, what their school was particularly good at and what their favourite subjects were. Prior to commencing work on the design the children took rubbings from the soles of their shoes, and objects, surfaces from within their school. Once the pupils collated their inspiration materials it was time to get to work on formatting ideas for the final design.

After the design was finalised, I drew up a copy for the children to work their designs and include their ideas, patterns and images

We decided the purple and yellow worked very well for the first panel with the pencils

This was a alternative design, which was less  complex, however the children opted for the more challenging design

We decided that the mural wouldbe a four panel piece, each panel representing one of the four team colours(red, green, blue and yellow) within the schools. To add a bit of spark to the piece we decided each coloured panel could only be paitned with the team colour, the complementary colour of the team colour and black and white.Therefore the red panel could only be red – green –black-white.

After consolation with the children the final design was drawn up and sketched onto the boards.

Prior to paitning I drew up the design onto board

I was so impressed with how the children worked as teams to complete the panels in just 2 days

Adding colour to the first board

Making sure the paint brush strokes all go the in the same direction

The bulk of the painting completed on the green boards

The blue board ready for outlining and finishing touches

The red board being painted

Nearly complete and starting to take shape

Using acrylic paint the children concentrated on painting the mural. Children were shown how to mix colours, to apply paint smoothly to board, how to hold a paint brush and learnt a little colour theory.

Completed yellow board

Completed green board

Completed blue board

Completed red board

Finally finishing touches were added to the boards prior to placing next to each other to evaluate the overall piece

Before the pieces go outside theywill be painted with outdoors varnish to protect the colour and the board –this will also add a nice sheen to the finished mural.

If you are interested in finding out more about having a mural painting for your company, school, group please contact me on lisamart@hotmail.co.uk