Art and Design in Action

Green Spaces Art Exhibition @ Birdwood House Art Gallery

The children have been inspired to create artwork in response to the theme Green Spaces and the positive influence the natural world has on our mental health and well-being.

Acorn Tree Class (Reception) have created a wide range of artwork based on leaves and their experiences in Forest School. The children have created textiles including individually sewn leaves and collaborative printing on fabric using crushed leaves. They have used their observational skills, to draw, paint and sculpt leaves from clay.

Yr1/2 were inspired by their visit to the beach to create a collaborative piece of mixed media art; which includes photographed images of the coastal environment and explores the children’s interactions with it.   They were also were inspired by images of the Garden of Eden. They children thought about what plants and creatures they would put in a ‘perfect’ garden. They then used watercolours to design their own landscapes. As a class, they decided that their top three wonders of nature are waterfalls, rainbows and best of all … food!

Yr3/4 created a collaborative piece of artwork using pastels and watercolours. Each child created an image of something from nature which makes them feel happy.

Flame Tree Class (Yr3/4) created a range of colourful artwork which represented different aspects of the natural world and their interactions with it; relating their experiences to their own mental health and well-being.

They worked together to produce individual pieces of work which were used to create a single collaborative design. The children worked with oil pastels, using a smudging technique to create their designs of birds on branches.

The children considered the things which are and have been important to them in their lives and their hopes, dreams and ambitions for the future. They chose to record their thoughts on images of hands, which they used to create the leaves of a single tree. They also created clay models based on the things which are important to them, using symbolism to communicate their ideas. Their Forest School art was inspired by how they perceive themselves. The children chose a range of different ways to represent themselves using natural materials.

Y5/6 were inspired by several local artists to create their own pieces of art based either on Dartmoor or other natural landscapes in Devon. As part of their Forest School experiences, the children produced fantastic beasts using clay and other natural materials.  As part of their exploration of mindfulness the children have produced a collaborative piece of art using individual leaves to create the image of a human mind.