I was recently asked to get involved with another project for the local Primary School to produce some artwork to take to India on their forthcoming trip.
The Project
As the artwork was destined for India, initial ideas decided on a subject matter of 'our local surroundings'; creating artwork representing the 'seaside' near where the children go to school and live.
I've just discovered canvas boards and thought they would be a great base to work on as they are easy to store and travel in the Headmasters' suitcase on the trip to India!
Children where picked from each year group, Upper Key Stage 1 (Year 2) up to Key Stage 2 (Year 5); due to the nature of how the boards would be hand delivered to India unfortunately only a few children where able to be selected in this task and a total of 15 final pieces of artwork was produced.
The development of the artwork
The project ran over four sessions, the first session the children were asked to think of their surrounding area and produce a quick sketch and paint the background colour of their canvas board. The second session the children were told to copy their sketch onto the canvas board (with a little guidance for the younger ones, to proportion the scale of the drawing so it filled the board) and then block the sketch in white paint to prepare for the colour.
The third session the children learnt the art of creating layers onto a canvas to get an overall better effect, by allowing the white paint to dry they were then able to add the first stage colour detail.
The final session was applying another layer of colour to get more depth into the paintings. During this session I also helped the children by tidying the edges and adding the final detail of outlines that were present in their original drawings.
The paintings were then taken back to the studio and spray varnished.
The results:
Beach Huts by Hannah, Class: Lions, Year 5
Beach Huts by Louisa, Class: Lions, Year 5
Beach Huts by Joseph, Class: Penguins, Year 2
Beach Hut, Sand Castles by Charlotte, Class: Badgers, Year 5
Beach Hut, Sea by Noah, Class: Meerkats, Year 2
Beach Hut by Chloe, Class: Badgers, Year 5
Beach Huts by Mishka, Class: Penguins, Year 2
Beach Huts by Amber, Class: Meerkats, Year 2
Houses by the Beach by Marney, Class: Chameleons, Year 3
Hatfield Hotel, Lowestoft Sea Front by Ewan, Class: Chameleons, Year 3
Fireworks by Mikolaj, Class: Sharks, Year 4
Happy Ice Cream by Chloe, Class: Dolphins, Year 4
Ice Cream by Hope, Class: Sharks, Year 4
Seaside Shell by George, Class: Lions, Year 5
Boat by Jude, Class: Dolphins, Year 4
We did have an abundance of beach huts but also had some hotels, houses, boats and ice creams!
So a special mention for students: Hannah, Louisa, Jude, Noah, Hope, Mishka, George, Charlotte, Marney, Chloe, Mikolaj, Joseph, Chloe, Amber and Ewan; you worked very hard and your work will be going over to India very shortly!
All together the canvas boards created this layout, a very bright and cheerful collage; by using the originals I have created a Fine Art print poster (first image) so the school can keep a memory of the art project up on the wall at school.
Liza Cole,
Founder and Designer, Liza J design
October 2015
