At Lyngford Park we are inspired by real life artists. We contacted illustrator Nick Maland when reading his book Big Blue Whale, he explained to us how he developed his drawing technique and was overwhelmed by the response of the LKS2 children. Artists Julia McKenzie and Richard Tomlinson also ran workshops in association with Public Health and Somerset Artworks. These focused on stopping and looking at nature and promoting wellbeing. The student’s artwork produced was exhibited as part of Somerset Art Weeks and celebrated with an evening of projection and craft activities for all the Lyngford community.
During art lessons we explore topics by creating artwork using materials used by the original artists. Class LKS2 created cave art in different ways, lying on their backs to draw on a ‘ceiling’, using their hands as stencils and experimenting making marks using charcoal, chalk and paint mixed from soils.
Class UKS2 was inspired by famous artists and recreated artwork using similar techniques to great painters, such as Monet’s impasto (fast, splodgy) brushstrokes painted quickly whilst outside. We use the “See, Think, Wonder” thinking routine to look at works of art in greater detail before creating our own.
Art enables links to explore social and emotional skills. The development of the Lyngford Park Learning Pit used Keith Haring inspired figures to create collaborative visual reminders for all classes to promote resilience when learning. During the art after school club, parents and students come and enjoy the relaxing process of producing repetitive patterns creating zentangle and mandala patterns. We have produced own mindfulness colouring book with our designs.
We recently came runners up out of hundreds of entries in a national bottle top sculpture competition. Our amazing sculptures are raising awareness for reducing, reusing and recycling have now found new homes and with the peacock displayed at Taunton Town’s football stadium and the angler fish and octopus collected in a Suez recycling lorry and are now at their Somerset and Devon depots.