It's muraltastic!

Whitefriars Infant School in Northamptonshire needed their playground wall brightening up... so who did they call? The Big Art People of course.
We were asked to do a big bright mural along a minibeasts theme, so first we got the children to produce some designs, then took an element from each one to produce this mockup of the final piece:


Everyone was happy with the design so we packed up our paints and headed down to the school. We passed two very windy days painstakingly transferring the children's wonderful minibeasts onto the wall:


Everyone was really pleased with the final piece. It certainly brightens up the playground! And it's all the children's work.
Hopefully we'll be back at Whitefriars next school year to do another giant art project on the front of the school. Any ideas?!

Jim (Big Artist)

What's taking root at Oughtibridge?

A giant pebble tree that's what!

Yes, we ventured north to surprisingly sunny Sheffield and helped the children make this huge 3m pebble mosaic tree:

All 300 children (the younger ones worked in pairs) made one leaf of the tree by carefully selecting pebbles of the right shape and colour and sticking them into some cement.

We got all the hundreds of leaves together on the playground and put the finishing touches on them by filing off any lumps and scrubbing off any paper that was stuck to the back of them.

All that was left was to make a tree trunk, then stick them all to the wall!

The Big Travelling Artist

Tim was stuck in the office during the first half of this week as I was hob-nobbing with the stars down in the Big Smoke. One Big Art Person was all that Newton Prep required for their weaving project, so I gamely volunteered to go down alone.
I worked with 250 infants over 2 days to produce these 4 brilliantly blue woven artworks. The children provided all the material, and I was there to supervise weaving and to staplegun it all together.


Many thanks to all of the staff and children at the school for making me feel so welcome, and to Tallulah (the work experience girl) for all of her help. Hopefully we'll be back next year!

Big Art Jim

Wigwamming at Kensington Junior School

The Big Art People just got back from a couple of days of willow-bending, raffia-weaving fun in Ilkeston.

We worked with loads of kids from Y3 to Y6 to produce this brightly-coloured addition to their playground.

It was just one of the projects that the school ran during their Art Week, which featured giant aliens, huge dolphins, a climbing wall, and some school-wide drum sessions.


Not bad for two days work!

Violet Lane Woodland Mural

So we finished the mural at Violet Lane last week, and we're really pleased with it! Here's the story so far:

Tim put out a plea on Twitter for scrap paper, and Lorna from Bryant Priest Newman Architects in Birmingham kindly volunteered their mass of old drawings.

Then we were introduced to the awesome reception classes at Violet Lane Infant School, who helped us to shred the paper up and make a huge vat of pulp.

They then used their pulp to make sheets of recyled paper. 150 sheets to be exact, which we took home and dried in the sunshine over the Easter holidays.










Easter Holidays over, it was time to get back to work, and Tim (with a little help from Jim) painted this huge 8ft backdrop in his Mum's back garden!

We brought this back to Violet Lane, where reception got to see the paper they had made and used it to make leaves for their woodland picture. Things got a little messy...

Finally, the children helped us to put the whole thing together using the leaves they had made, as well as some nice 3D tree trunks and flowers to brighten things up.

And here's what it looks like!

Pretty striking!

This is the first in a series of projects we're doing at Violet Lane this term to celebrate and enhance the school's woodland area.

There were no school holidays for the Big Art People this Easter, we visited six local libraries to run some craft workshops. The children (and adults!) got the chance to make Matisse-inspired hanging Easter eggs, hairy Easter beasties, thumbprint chicks, and to contribute to our giant Very Hungry Caterpillar (to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that classic children's book).

These were just the first in a whole programme of workshops that we're doing for South Staffs libraries. The next ones are in the Summer, so check our website for more information nearer the time.

Check out our Easter page for more information, and of course loads of lovely photos!

Paper Making at Violet Lane

The Big Art People just got back from two days outside in the glorious sunshine at Violet Lane School in Burton-on-Trent.
In just one of a whole programme of upcoming projects at the school, we ran paper making sessions with all four Reception classes.
The children loved ripping, mashing, pulping, and forming the paper; and we were glad of a few days in the sun after the last few weeks of office work.
The paper will be dried over the Easter holidays, then taken back to the school to form part of a giant woodland-themed installation.

The paper the children are recycling was very generously donated by Bryant Priest Newman Architects in Birmingham after we put out a plea for waste paper on Twitter.

Don't forget to check out the brand-spanking new website at www.thebigartpeople.co.uk