Drawn to Nature

PP2 teacher and Art Co-ordinator Kirsty Baranowski arranged a fantastic art week for all the children this term. Drawing, painting and clay modelling activities were inspired by the work of Beatrix Potter and a current exhibition of her work entitled 'Drawn to Nature' at the V&A Museum.

Taking place slightly earlier in the calendar this year, Pre-Prep art week also coincided perfectly with the Young Art exhibition. There were 23 winners awarded from the Pre-Prep and each of them had their artwork displayed on the walls of the Royal College of Art.

Back at school, each of the Pre-Prep classes welcomed visiting artist, life drawing teacher and artist in residence Susan James Dean for an art workshop, below.

Susan engaged each class with warm-up drawing exercises and encouraged the children to make bold marks filling their pieces of paper. She motivated them to draw and paint more freely, by showing them how to use large sweeping movements and avoid restrictive outlines. Not worrying about making mistakes or making a mess and enjoying the process were some of the positive attitudes that Susan cultivated. The children responded by producing some imaginative, bold and expressive pieces of art. 

Exploring the work of Beatrix Potter evolved into a cross-curricular project that didn't stop at Art. The children read and listened to her stories in English/Literacy lessons and wrote stories and poems about some of her fictional characters but they also learnt about her work as a natural scientist and conservationist in their Science lessons.

But it is her artwork and illustrations that inspired the children to create their own versions of birds, flowers, bunnies, hedgehogs, mice and more. Our Reception and PP1 classes enjoyed using their sense of touch to mould clay models of Peter Rabbit bunnies and Mrs Tiggywinkle hedgehogs, whilst PP2 and PP3 focused on developing their painting skills. 

At the end of the week, Pre-Prep parents were invited into their child/children's classroom to view the artwork - some of which was displayed but most was collated into individual A3 sketchbooks for each of the children.  The sketchbooks (below) were a new idea introduced by Mrs Baranowski in January this year and they will undoubtedly be a wonderful record and keepsake for Pre-Prep pupils and their families. 

Mrs Baranowski is thrilled that the children were so enthusiastic about art week. "It is wonderful to see how many of them developed their artistic skills over the week and became bolder in their creativity." She is also very happy to hear that some of the children and their families have already been to see the Beatrix Potter exhibition at the V&A as a result of art week and she hopes others will too.