Christmastimes

A Kid-less Project

The Kids' Cookery School (@KidsCookerySch) recently employed my illustration skills to liven up their information boards.
They are a great little charity who teach children all over London some basic cooking techniques, and what is healthy and what is not.
Below are some before and after pictures of the boards. Delightful.

Space Craft...get it?

Yet another successful set of craft sessions at South Staffs libraries.
This time we hit Codsall, Perton, Cheslyn Hay, Great Wryley, Wombourne, Kinver, Brewood, and Penkridge.

I'll leave you with the pictures :)

Multicultural Mural

Brand new Big Artist, Natalie Gore has spent the last eight days working at St. Stephen's School in Wolverhampton producing this wonderful mural.


She spent the first two days planning and designing with the children, then battled through last week's rain to transfer it onto their once-bare wall.

Each panel takes a different country as its subject, featuring that country's flag, skyline, and animal.

We think she's done an incredible job. Have a peek below and see for yourself.

¡El Gran Picasso Fracaso!

Not really. It was a great success.
Shortly before nipping over to the 2010 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts I ran a one-day project at Shebbear College down in sunny Devon.

I had 24 Y9 pupils at my disposal, and put them to work recreating three of Pablo Picasso's masterpieces.




Weeping Woman (1937)

Girl Before a Mirror (1932)

Nude and Still Life (1931)


To break up the day we also did some Art Attack-style big art, out on the school field.



And had a go at GIANT pictionary.

Those Were The Days

Just found this relic as I was cleaning out my hard drive.

It's the video from our first ever official Big Art People Project, way back in November 2008.

My my, look how far we've come!

Pebbles!

We've been working like crazy on the pebble mosaic at Perton Library, South Staffs this month. Fuelled by tea and biscuits provided by the wonderful library staff we have almost finished our largest mosaic to date.

Measuring 3.6m by 2.4m, and containing some 8,000 hand-placed pebbles (we estimate), the mosaic is inspired by the people of Perton.

We are awaiting delivery of some tiles to finish the final lake section, but in the meantime here are some pictures of the work in progress:

Because You're St. Georgeous

"We need your help with some art projects," said the Art Coordinator of St. George's Primary School in Littleover. "And one of them has to be done before Easter!"
I'm not one to shy from a challenge, and I did have one free day before Easter, so I took a trip to the school.

They wanted the children to produce a piece to present to the local St. George's Church, as a token of their thanks and appreciation for everything that the church has done for them over the years. Something relevant, permanent, and classy. We tossed some ideas around before deciding on a stained glass window-style relief piece, based on the myth of St. George, and involving children from Reception to Y6.

So I returned home, sat down, had a cuppa and a ponder, and came up with this design:

Everyone happy with the design, I headed to the school on the last day of term. The children were excitable, but all lovely and interested in what I was doing there, what materials I was using, and who would get to have a go.

I worked with just two children from each class, and 24 in total. They built up the many layers, from the basic background to the detailed face, by applying small balls of art mache, shaping it, and smoothing it out.

The bell rang for the end of the day, the children rushed home to their Easter eggs and XBoxes, and I spent a couple of minutes smoothing the edges and refining the details.

I'm returning after Easter to help the kids paint it. Can't wait.

The Long and Snowy Road

The wonderful Jean sent me a picture of our wonderful tunnel in the recent dump of wonderful snow.

Lovely.

Paint It Black...blue, red, green, yellow, orange, and purple.

I just arrived back from a paint-splattered morning at Little Treasures Days Nursery, Penkridge.

As part of their Half Term workshop programme they asked for The Big Art People to make them a brightly coloured sign to adorn the front entrance to the nursery.

I had 11 children helping me, who were between 3 and 9 years old. And I think they did a smashing job.

I'd like to be, under the sea.

It was an autumnal October eve when we began this mural project at the Evening Sleepover Club at Saxon Hill Special School, in Lichfield, Staffs, and last night when we finally finished it off.

We'd been asked to brighten up their dull, sterile bathroom with an undersea scene. Tim hit on a novel way to get the children (many with profound cerebral palsy) as involved as possible: we would have them paint long sheets of textured wallpaper with bright colours, then we would cut them into coral shapes and paste them onto a blue wall; we also recruited Lea Thomas, a local joiner, to cut out some chunky fish to be stuck amongst the coral reef.

First we painted the background.

Then spent a week of evening sessions getting real messy with the kids.

Several paint fights broke out over the course of these sessions. All, I must add, instigated by the Saxon Hill staff. This is typical of the good humour and joy that pervades the whole establishment, and makes it a pleasure to return again and again.

We pasted the coral onto the wall, the fish were decorated, then they were stuck onto the wall using velcro pads (this allows them to be moved and swapped around at the whim of the students).

The whole thing is bright, colourful, textured, and tactile. Perfect for the bathroom!

On a connected note, I'm running the Brighton Marathon to raise money for the charity Scope, who focus on people with cerebral palsy.

Any contribution would be greatly received: http://bit.ly/aJWNes

We Wish You A Merry Craftmas

Late December, 2009: the libraries of South Staffordshire rang with the sounds of chattering children and snapping crackers as we, the Big Art People, ran our 5th lot of craft sessions.

We worked with loads of kids (and the odd parent), in Wombourne, Perton, Brewood, Codsall, Penkridge, and Cheslyn Hay.

The children all made wintery scenes on paper plates, shiny crowns, and customized crackers (complete with joke). Truly the spirit of Christmas was in the air, and it was a lovely end to a rather hectic year.

We have just one set of craft sessions to go, during February half term. What the theme is we do not yet know, but rest assured the crafts will be as crafty as ever.

In other news, Perton library has received some funding for us to do a pebble mosaic in their courtyard, in conjunction with the local community...so that's exciting!