No Ordinary Time-Machine

I love looking at the work of other artists; I find it inspiring and motivating. I wanted to share my enthusiasm with the children, but the challenge was to introduce a piece of artwork in such a way that they will create an original artistic response, rather than just 'copy'.

I knew that storytelling was a big hit with the class, so I came up with a story involving 'time-travel' or rather 'Work-Of-Art-Travel'. 

I chose a couple of paintings by one of my favourite local artists, Paul Johnstone. These paintings are bright and colourful with a 'garden' or 'wild-spaces' theme that I thought would appeal to the children and be open- ended enough to allow for imaginative improvisation. I also took in some flowers and plants from my garden at home to add an extra dimension to the 'travelling'.

Imagine, if you can, that this hall is no ordinary school hall. This hall is actually a powerful machine that can take us on a journey. Today, we are going to use the machine to travel to the inside of a painting.

Paintings by Paul Johnstone

We need to work together. We need to use our imaginations to power the machine. 

What can we see?
What can we touch?
What can we smell?
What can we hear?
How do we feel?

I asked the children to think of a sentence that reminded them of their travels and write it down. This would form the basis of a narrative for their work- a focus point. I then asked the children not to paint the objects they imagined, but to paint how they felt and to think carefully about the colours they used and how they made their marks. 

Below, are the children's original artistic responses to Paul Johnstone's work. As they delved into their imaginations, some children used a card to drag the acrylic paint across the page, slowly or quickly, depending on the strength of wind. Some children made fast taps with a brush, representing fish and falling rain. Gorgeous texture was etched into the work, scratching into the surface, revealing the paper underneath. Paint was drilled and twisted into the page, how far can you push? Waterfalls were imagined. Birds, ducks and even a 'soil-burglar' were painted into existence. Each piece of work is different, and evocative of the wild-spaces they 'travelled' to. Nobody copied the original paintings.

As it groo darker you couldn't see anything

The wind was bloing my face

The sun shines briety

It was colorful and peasful

The fish is jumping in th water

The wind bloow in my hair

A man defends his land from a 'soil burglar' who wants to steal soil to build a house

The garden was silant and beutiful

Can you spot the duck?

It was silant and peasful

Water falls flood sweeping water

It is very colourful and sunny

In the garden there are lots of flowers

I could hear the birds singing

It was so colorful

The sun shon in my face. Bright flowers are shining.

The garden is full of flowers

A New Venture

Following on from the success of the Beehive Festival, I decided to bite the bullet and begin my art club at school- Art Play. I wanted to create an environment for the children where they were free to experiment and just enjoy using the materials in their own way with no expectations and no agendas.

It has been really hard to strike a balance between directive instruction and imagination. I have found that the children really need a starting point to set their creativity flowing. It's hard to come up with that starting point whilst losing or ignoring the 'agenda'.

I have found, by accident (the best ideas always seem to be accidents), that a successful starting point seems to be telling a story at the beginning and then allowing the children to use the materials in any way they wish within a wide boundary. A story spurs the imagination on and also calms the class at the end of a long school day, easing the transition.

The first story I used (which I came across by accident on the morning of the last class of term) was 'The Wonder' by Faye Hanson. In 'The Wonder', a boy with a suppressed, but lively imagination finds himself in his art class with a blank piece of paper. 'Use your imagination,' the teacher says. He finds it hard at first, but then wonderful things emerge- 'his daydreams are set free' and 'they take off across the page... over a park where no one keeps off the grass...'

So as it was a sunny day, I took several picnic blankets into school, and we all sat in the shade under the trees on field and I read the children the story. When we got back to the classroom, a blank piece of paper was waiting in each child's place and I told them to 'use their imagination' like in the story. I also put other materials out- scrap paper, card shapes, scissors, glue, tissue paper and chalk pastels. It was amazing- there was silence as the children were engrossed in their work. They imagined 'a colourful lake', an 'underpants cleaning machine,' a 'house with an outside with a picture on the wall' and some children enjoyed using the stapler to make books. It was wonderful- masses of coloured sticky bits, each piece of work unique.

That was what those children needed that day- a calm, inspiring beginning, paper, scissors, a bit of glue, and the freedom to make what they wanted.

When I get chance, I will share the other things we got up to last term (and this term), the challenges I had, and the revelations.