PREP SCHOOL ARTWORK

Teaching all of Prep School from Reception to Prep 6 has been an amazing adventure this year. I often tell the children that I learn as much from them about art as they do from me, as curiosity and creativity are the natural state of childhood.

Creativity is not just for the classroom, it is a way of life, a way of looking at the world with a sense of wonder, even found in ordinary things. ‘Making the ordinary extraordinary’ is one of our class mottos as well as ‘creating an adventure for the eye’ and ‘inspiration is everywhere’. Making unique art follows the realisation that the way we express ourselves and the art we create are as wonderfully individual and varied as we are. In a world of mass produced, generic “sameness“, creativity is supremely valuable both as an expression of human individuality and as a development of thinking in a creative way, no matter what challenges Life presents us with. Therefore the classroom becomes about life in all its forms both now and in the future as well as about Art. In Art children learn through creative experimentation and having fun, whether it is about planets and growing vegetables in Reception, appreciating and protecting our oceans in Years 1 and 2, the school values and those of different cultures in Years 3 and 4, the science of colour and the wonders of the natural world in Year 5, or the expression of movement and the strength of character exhibited by Olympic athletes in Year 6. We have a board up in the art room with photographs of Olympic and Paralympic sports men and women with the qualities that can be seen in them and that can guide and inspire us. “Be confident, find your passion, persevere, be kind, be courageous, do your best, be strong, be focused, aim high, be determined, be yourself, support others, be happy, be ready, celebrate life”.

I like to use recycled materials as often as possible, educating through example. Using reclaimed materials prompts discussions on repurposing waste which instils thoughtful possibilities of a circular economy that aims to reuse rather than discard. Encouraging thoughtfulness towards people we love came naturally as we made beautiful Christmas presents for family members, also taking the opportunity to experimentally print our own wrapping paper. Fantastic cards have been made for Christmas, Birthdays, Valentines, Mothers and Fathers Day, and as caring farewells for those leaving our Shebbear community. Individuality is encouraged through imaginative drawing, the use of many different techniques and materials and unrestricted use of colour pattern and texture. As artists we can decide how to express our vision and experience of the inner and outer world and choose the colours, patterns and compositions that reflect our interests and personality. It is very exciting to see that given one subject matter, a dozen children will tackle it in a dozen different ways if given the freedom to find their own unique creativity. I often ask the question “how many ways of painting any given subject matter are there?” Eventually we get to the answer “as

many ways as there are artists in the world, and as many different ways each artist explores that theme”. If asked “what colour should I do this?” I answer “I don’t know, you are the artist, it’s up to you!” Of course there are times when I instruct them in the skills needed for accurate observational drawing but mostly their skills improve through the continued enjoyment of making art.

Collaborative projects promote good team working skills, mutual respect for different ideas and opportunities for finding democratic solutions to universal interpersonal issues if they arise. All good skills for life along with thinking creatively or “outside the box“ which elevates you from the crowd. I work as much as possible in an organic and spontaneous way with the children, taking advantage of a beautiful day to work outside, responding to current events like painting sunflowers for Ukraine, or taking their lead with a project to go in a different direction when they come up with a good idea.

I have also run activities for senior school pupils in Forms 1 and 2 this year and have had the pleasure of guiding a hard-working and highly motivated group through projects in landscape and Seascape and portraiture both (human and pet) with a variety of mediums and techniques.

After two years of not having an actual Schools Exhibition in the Burton Art Gallery due to Covid, this year Shebbear exhibited a fantastic selection of work from the last two years.

Five of our students won prizes awarded by the North Devon Arts Society and Shebbear College won a prize for “outstanding artwork“ as a whole - artwork by pupils in each year group was exhibited and I am very proud of all of them who have produced such great work this year.

Finally my thanks to Mrs Willis Butcher at the beginning of the year and Mrs Emerson latterly who have provided tireless support and cheerful enthusiasm in the lower year classes. Mrs Thompson and Mrs Henderson have gamely entered into the creative mess of large quantities of paint and glue combined with enthusiastic four and five-yearolds, and kept Reception in all its glory running smoothly in the art room.

There is never a dull day and I can honestly say that I love my job and seeing the developing creativity and artistic skills of all our brilliant young artists.

Mrs Appleton-Wahl Art Teacher

Reception Artwork

Reception have had an incredibly prolific year, using acrylic paints, printing, watercolour, collage, sculpture, sand painting and many other techniques. They have explored subjects covering co-curricular planets (made into mobiles), a Kandinsky inspired mural (which looked fantastic in the Burton Gallery Schools exhibition), Elmer the Elephant sculptures from milk bottles, the Hungry Caterpillar, growing vegetables, sea creatures, birds in nests, trees in bloom and stripy creatures amongst many other projects! Reception have practised their drawing, cutting and sticking skills and experimented with utmost enthusiasm. There is never a dull moment and these amazingly diverse and compelling personalities with their various talents keep us all on our toes and smiling!

Prep 1 & 2 Artwork

Prep 1 and 2 have worked very hard this year and produced so much fabulous work. Subjects tackled were as diverse as mixed media beach scenes (incorporating collage, sponge painting, drawing, fabric additions and foot printing!), chalk and oil pastel drawings and ink fishes. We have created decoupage Christmas presents, tissue collage and painted sunflowers for Ukraine, self portraits in pencil, pastels, felt pen and watercolour, Paul Klee inspired townscapes, Rousseau inspired zebras in the jungle, warm and cold hand designs and jubilee cakes! All has been accomplished with energy, enthusiasm and unbridled happy creativity.

Prep 3 & 4 Artwork

Prep 3 and 4 have explored all sorts of subject matters, materials and techniques this year in art. They made collage covered milk bottle fishes swimming in a massive shoal across our art room window and created the biggest mobile in the world (we think! ), turning salvaged generic boring Halloween spiders and bats into fantastic bright unique cheerful monsters painted in full Technicolor glory. They made a huge wonderful card for the arrival of Mr Willetts’ baby and were so good at the cutout collage words that they went on to make permanent posters of our school values plus a few extras! After Confidence, Compassion, Courage, Creativity, Courtesy and Curiosity they added Caring, Colour, Creatures and Chocolate and then Kindness despite its K. After creating wonderful painted bowls for Christmas presents and Modigliani inspired self portraits in chalk pastels, they made amazing palette knife acrylic painted sunflowers for Ukraine. The next project was owl designs drawn in black and painted in luminous inks followed by Native American animal paintings inspired by the native artist Norval Morrisseau. Lastly, before half term, we looked at Monet’s water lilies paintings and then they experimented with various layering techniques to create their own beautiful water scenes. Water is not just blue it turns out, but a myriad of different hues and reflected colours. Prep 3 and 4 are a very creative, hard working and enthusiastic group of young artists and it is a great pleasure to work with them.

Prep 5 Artwork

This year in Art, Prep 5 have completed several in-depth projects covering sculpture, painted designs from nature and observational drawing. After looking at Picasso masks and examples from many different cultures, their first project was making large creative masks from the contents of the recycle box. They used a variety of techniques and materials to create and attach interesting shapes, using designs that emphasised features, and varied textures, which were eventually painted in colourful and whimsical ways. After making gorgeous painted bottle candlesticks for Christmas presents and printing the wrapping paper, we looked at the work of Gordon Hopkins to inspire our next project. Looking at composition, colour and design from natural forms, Prep 5 worked hard on two vibrant pieces of work, in felt pen and then paint. The first exploring colour and pattern, the second using various painting techniques to achieve texture and broken colour. We took advantage of glorious weather to draw outside and our current project is observational drawings and glorious multicoloured ink drawings of insects. There is a lot of talent in this year group and it has been a great year.

Prep 6 Artwork

Prep 6 started the year in art looking at the Olympics, exploring the qualities that create Olympians and drawing their favourite athletes performing their sports in as realistic a way as possible. After looking at Matisse collages, the pupils were then tasked with producing a cutout silhouette that used the distinctive shapes of their chosen sports man or woman in action and incorporating it into a Matisse inspired collage. A huge collaborative collage was next with all the pupils completing the background and each producing a BMX rider doing a trick with collage shapes describing the movement and energy. With an interlude for making wall hanging weavings for Christmas, we returned to our theme in January and turned our hands to sculpture. Making wire figures in sporting action poses, they padded them out with tinfoil modelling and then covered them in plaster and anchored them in clay bases before painting their figures in whatever way they wished. They did a superb job of describing their chosen sport through the posture of the sculpture figures. Following this we went back to drawing, this time a selection of cats and dogs, exploring the tones and textures of fur and capturing their expressions. Their draughtsmanship skills have come a long way and they worked hard to produce detailed and impressive drawings.