Kids love Art!
I haven’t been in a classroom for 15 years since I helped out with my own children at primary school, but when asked by a friend Carole to spend a morning inspiring 8 and 9 yr olds with seascape painting, I didn’t hesitate to accept.
I arrived at Holsworthy Primary School with a seascape painting. The class were ready for my arrival, Carole having shown them my work via the computer on the white board which was scrolling through my blog gallery.
II wanted to inspire them with a story of how my love of the sea began and told me how I grew up on a farm and whenever the weather was good and it wasn’t harvest time, we went to Widemouth Bay for the day, and set up with windbreaks and a picnic. The connection must have been made in these early days and as Mum did farmhouse bed and breakfast too, I often went off with the visitors to the beach too.
I was very keen that they remembered how they felt when they were last on the beach to get some of the feel and energy that I like to convey into my paintings, and to instill in them that they can make no mistakes and there are no rules…. the best piece of advice I ever had which allowed freedom of creativity and gave confidence.
Delicate watercolours being undertaken
Good old Poster Paints!
Holsworthy is about 10 miles inland and I wasn’t sure how ‘into‘ the beach these kids would be, but over half were very familiar with the Widemouth Bay, Bude beaches, Northcott and Sandymouth which are my stomping ground.
After a lot of very thoughtful questions and the usual obsession with kids on ‘how much money I make’ … which isn’t a lot, (but they had already put me on a pedestal as an ‘artist’ ), they set about rotating around five tables of media producing the most amazing artwork.
They were such an enthusiastic class, incredibly well behaved, and Carole’s style of teaching held them captive the whole morning. The watercolours in particular stood out, delicate and thought about which produced some lovely results. At school, I loved every opportunity to do Art, and nothing has changed. They revelled in the opportunity to do a whole morning of Art and will probably remember it for a long time. This shows the value of Art for everyone when you see how relaxed, enthusiastic and focused they were given the hance for some freedom of expression
The morning ended with a prize of some of my cards for Ellie, who had worked quietly, but was incredibly focused on what she wanted to achieve with great observational skills and use of colour.
A fun rewarding morning!