This was an action REAL visit for me and I was joined in St Patrick’s school by Orla, creative Director of Kid’s Own and Tracy the Researcher for our project.
The preparation for this session began a day or two before when I prepared the GROUND… the SURFACE on which the children would paint…
I used large sheets of cardboard and painted them with black acrylic paint so that the surface could take the poster paint the children would use.I used a large household painting brush and made big swirly movements to fill the space!
First we discussed the purpose of this session which was to experience what it is like to paint on a large surface on the floor and to engage our whole bodies in the process. We were also trying to see how much CONTROL we could use to drip, pour and splatter the paint…
This surface is an actual artist’s canvas – we have used the back side of the canvas. If you look carefully you can see folds, creases and holes where metal staples would have been at the outer edge of the material where it was previously stretched tight over a wooden frame called a ‘stretcher’.Carefully controlling the amount of paint coming out of the watering can to create wonderful star-like spots.taking an old paintbrush and filling its tip with paint to flick or trail paint to the surface…trailing the paint off a stick to create thin swirly lines…
Layers of paint have very quickly built up…
Look at all the trails of blue and yellow paint here. The children have tried to produce thin flowing lines and thicker blobs of paint shapes.
The children used many different implements to explore how they could get paint to the canvas without actually touching the surface itself. A sports cone had its tip pierced so paint could flow through…The children used many different things from brushes, sticks, cans, funnels, baby bottles, syringes and explored the different heights from which they dripped the paint.
Amazing detail of one painted surface…Detail of painted surfaceA wonderful layering of lines in primary colours – but look how the blue and yellow paint has ended ‘mixed’ to create green!The edge of the canvas / cardboard didn’t stop the paint from hitting the floor.Vibrant effects of the paint mixing and reacting on the surfaces
Great energy was used to project the paint right across the canvas and beyond!
After the activity was complete, we asked the children to stand beside the canvas that they really liked and to offer a few words about what they liked about it and also how they created their artwork.
We explained to Orla that we had been practicing making very controlled loops which had got bigger and bigger in past sessions. Mrs Hughes made the observation that she had noticed the children’s handwriting had improved considerably… they were more confident with their joined up writing… She showed Orla their books!
The second part of this very active session was that in order to hear a little more about balance and control, we connected online with a REAL PROFESSOR in a UNIVERSITY!
Professor (of Health and Fitness) Marie Murphy from Ulster University kindly agreed to connect with our class. We asked Professor Murphy to help us explore BALANCE with our bodies…
