ABOUT
This is a collaborative project between Langley Park School for Girls and Hawes Down Primary School, supported through the Impact Multi Academy Trust.
The resources shared here are to support the collaborative journey towards creating a large scale mural on both school sites. However the resources could be easily used and tailored to classroom teaching and learning throughout an academic year.
THEMES
The principle theme of the project is to encourage our children to explore their own environment, to look more closely and ask questions of what they see and experience. Our focus is on the natural environment and ecology; matters of balance and order in the natural world. We aim to create a mural which visually represents the outside environment and brings this inside making a visual connection between the two and developing a sense of continuity of experience.
CONTEXT
As a starting point the project centres on aspects of the formal elements; the fundamental language of Art. We will look at our environment through the eyes of other artists such as Henri Matisse and contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare. Through line, colour, texture, pattern we will explore our natural environment, using various art techniques and practices to bring about a large scale collaborative outcome.
PROJECT - DAY 1
At the start of the project the year 5 students at Hawes Down Primary School will get a brief outline of the project. We will discuss the main theme, our sources of inspiration and the workshops the students will be involved in.
For day 1 a group of year 12 Visual Arts students will visit HDPS with the project leader, Mr Fox Joyce. The 60 year 5 students will be split into 3 groups of 20 and will work with 4/5 of the year 12 students. There will be 3 different workshops throughout the day. Each workshop is approx 1 hour long. All students will experience all 3 workshops in a rotation
WORKSHOP 1 - DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Using Canon 1100D DSLR cameras the students took photographs of natural forms, plants, trees, leaves etc. They focused on aspects on the formal elements such as line, tone, colour, texture etc.
WORKSHOP 2 - ANALOGUE PHOTOGRAPHY
In addition to using digital cameras the students also used two, more traditional photographic techniques; cyanotype and lumen printing. Both techniques rely on the interaction between light sensitive chemicals painted on paper or light sensitive photographic paper and UV sun rays. Natural objects are gathered then placed on the light sensitive paper. Glass is put on top to keep everything in place and then this is left in direct sunlight for 20 to 30 mins. The cyanotype paper is then washed in cold water to develop the final picture whereas the lumen prints are fixed with photographic fixer so that the image does not disappear over time.
WORKSHOP 3 - RUBBINGS/FROTTAGE
The students also used newsprint paper and wax crayons to make rubbings of different natural textures and surfaces. Their aim was to build a visual diary of the natural forms they could see and feel in their forest school area.
PROJECT - DAY 3
FINAL WORKSHOP - ASSEMBLAGE
During the final day of the project the students stared to us all of the images and work that they had made in the previous workshops. They cut circles from their work using templates of different sizes. The cut circles of intricate marks, textures and surfaces were the glued to a circular piece of board. The students progressively built up layers of circular images gradually working towards a completed whole.
Finally, reflecting on the plant cut outs of Matisse the students cut out a plant like form in white paper. This was then glued on top of the layered textured circular cut outs, forming a contrast in images and enabling both to pop out for the viewer.
Working collaboratively the students created many final circular outcomes all of which formed together to create the final mural, a celebration of a collective effort to produce a large scale art work, bringing the outside to the inside of the school building.