Trewirgie Junior School Murals

The Trewirgie "Cornish Studies" Mural.

Earlier this year I completed a series of three murals at Trewirgie Junior School in Redruth.

"Creativity and Watersports" A mural about favourite leisure activities.

This was such a great project. The pupils involved chose and designed all the content and it was their choice to theme the murals on their studies.

For each wall, a design team of pupils came up with the ideas and directed me through the sketches straight onto the wall during a consultation workshop, and returned to class. I called them back when it was time to colour.

Most of the paint that was applied was the work of the pupils involved. Really, in a way, all I did was help with outlines and tidying up the edges!

Most had never used spray paint before and they responded well to a responsible introduction to this versatile medium.

The "Trewirgie Regal" playground theatre space mural. Designed by Trewirgie pupils.

These workshops are hugely beneficial in using drawing as a visual skill which supports other communication skills like reading and writing.

Here is an write-up from the West Briton newspaper.

Recent workshops.

Lately I've been working on projects that will emerge later in the year and based around the use of art in health. More about this as it emerges.

During this time I was asked to help Kernow Young Carers and Action For Children, a family project in Redruth, create work that shows why they love their project. The benefit the young people get out of these inclusive projects is astounding.

Some of the young people from the youth project Action For Children got to spend a week at Falmouth Fire Station and get real fire service training. So their collage was all about the energy and excitement they experienced during this incredible week. All the beneficial aspects can bee seen as icons flying out of the hosepipe!

That's Kev there from Action For Children giving the "thumbs up!" verdict on the new work for his office created by Kernow Young Carers.

Then later that week a group of Kernow Young Carers created a transformed version of their logo, incorporating all the aspects of their world that they can experience as being part of the project.

Both pieces of work are on 6ft wide canvases and will be hung in the offices from which the projects are run. We used spray paint, acrylic paint, photos, and our own wheatpaste (made from just flour and water) to create the works. And very powerful works of art they are too!

Do something about it.

Last week the Big Lunch Extras team from The Eden Project took me on a mystery tour up to Northfleet, next to the Thanes in North Kent. 

An ex-colleague of mine, Peter Scollard, works (often unpaid) with other volunteers to improve their community environment and open spaces, sometimes without any permission from anywhere!

It was a huge surprise to see Pete, and for him to see me (he didn't know I was coming up either) and to see the work he, and Carl, Gary, Kelly and team are doing to improve local open spaces and improve morale in the community.

It was inspiring to meet so many other people and groups that Big Lunch Extras help and mentor during the presentations and an absolute pleasure to deliver a Drawingonthings art workshop in Wallace Gardens Housing Estate nearby!

Check out http://nowallsgardens.org/

And http://www.biglunchextras.com

For more info.

Right Kids!! Spray Paint The Corridors!!!

Such a good project this week at St Ives Junior School!
70 year 6 students designed images, including a re-vamp of their logo, and spray painted them on their corridors as a lasting legacy for future students.
I helped a bit, but all the ideas are theirs and represent positive (and fun) messages for their predecessors.

Bodmini

I did a Drawingonthings 3D art workshop last week in Bodmin for the Chestnuts Young People's Centre.

The model is a mini Bodmin, with scalextric roads, and members of the public can call into council offices on the high street and race it.

Heartlands Urban Festival

Summer is over and just before we plunge headfirst into the depths of winter I need to crank up the blog. Stand back!

First up: Heartlands Urban Festival

Such a busy weekend with stacks going on like DJs, mini ramps, street skate section, tons of walls to paint on, bands, dance groups and tons more.

From West Briton: Article

Photo Stuart Burton: "Thank you so much for taking the time to teach my boys how to write with aerosols. You really gave them a day they'll never forget."

Photo Stuart Burton

Surfboard Art School!

Get this! These kids at Richard Lander School in Truro get to make their own surfboards at school.

How classrooms should look!

And paint them with me, before they get them glassed at Best Ever surfboards in St Agnes.

The Surfboard Manufacture course is a choice on the school's popular activities week, during the last week of term. 

It was expertly run in the DT rooms. The pupils got to shape their own boards from blanks in whatever style they want. All the boards were really good shapes. I let them do the same with the sprays, and go for any style and content they wanted. Some of the ideas where pure genius!

They designed their own decals!

Paint pen dept.

Boards being glassed back at the factory.

Demo spray.

Drawing on things at the Big Jubilee Lunch - St Blazey

I hopped on Eden Project's "Big Green Bus" recently (that's not a metaphor by the way it's a... big, green, bus) and went along to the St Blazey Big Jubilee Lunch.

This neighbourhood street party celebration for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee took place at two sites in the Cornish town of St Blazey, near St Austell during the bank holiday weekend.

Local residents organise the events, Eden supports them and I was at both sites drawing people's ideas on canvases made from recycled skateboard ramps!

Four canvases, and four sets of ideas, at once.

Pics courtesy of DrawingonthingsTV. Video coming soon

Some canvases drying before their owners take them home.

The whole day had a great neighbourhood street party atmosphere! Many people turned up to both sites. I was asked to paint all sorts of pictures including, kangaroos, vampires, superman, peoples' names, zombies, cars, aliens, cartoon characters and waves.

Everybody got their pictures signed and were allowed to keep them as a reminder of the day.

Newquay Art8 Festival Drawingonthings Workshop

Last Sunday was genuinely the sunniest day of the year by far! Loads of people turned up for this event in the back garden of the Newquay Arms as part of the Art8 festival.

The pub and Art8 had sponsored the event so that members of the public could get involved as part of the festival which is the first of what will hopefully be an annual showcase of art in and around Newquay.

A few adults took part too but other than that, the average age of the artists making these pictures was 10 years old, all participants had never used spray paint before. Some of these guys had travelled from bristol to do this workshop! All were complete naturals!

A Drop-in Drawingonthings Surgery!

LINk in Cornwall are the people who pass on everyone's thoughts and feelings about their health services here in Cornwall to the people who run them.

Using communication to bring about positive change is also something that my Drawingonthings Workshops are known for. Which is why LINk in Cornwall thought it would be a good idea to have me run a drop-in workshop in Truro City centre as a feature of their celebration event called Watch Your Health, last Thurdsay.

Young people could colaborate on a peice in the Drawingonthings Workshop in exchange for the (Yes/No) answer to: "Do you think there is enough information about health services in Cornwall for young people?

A highly creative day followed, filled with discussion on the topic, and some awesome pieces of work were created!



But the best bit...
All the work returns to the donors of the "canvases" (many of whom were there on the day) and will be displayed in their offices, surgeries, etc. This was an important part of this workshop as it showed that the young peoples' opinions are highly regarded, as is their art!





LINk in Cornwall's website: http://www.linkincornwall.org.uk