Saturday 22 September 2012

Crescent Art Centre Essential Skills Workshop

Today I delivered an afternoon of drawing, painting and printmaking to a group of 11-14 year olds. We looked at self portraits and started by making simple reflection drawings. These were then projected onto large paper to work on. 
We looked at the work of Van Gogh and Lucien Freud to see how they draw and paint portraits using a variety of directional line and mark making. 
We focused mainly on the contours of our face and tried to describe the light and dark areas.
We used charcoal, oil bars, acrylic paint and screen printing to experiment and have fun!

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Video of InterAct Youth Arts Festival

A lovely video showcasing all the wonderful art, drama and music events during the InterAct Youth Arts Festival. My screen printing workshop features near the start. 

Friday 31 August 2012

Starting the PGCE in Primary September 2012

After many years of building up my experience and knowledge through arts facilitation, I'm extremely excited to say I have been accepted onto the PGCE in Primary teaching!!
It is week 1 and I have learnt so much already in all areas of learning. 

One of our first assessments is to work in a group of 6 and create an interactive story board about a nursery rhyme suitable for foundation level.  
My group have chosen Mary Mary Quite Contrary. 

Mary Mary Quite Contrary 
How does your garden grow, 
With silver bells and cockle shells 
And pretty maids all in a row.

So far my job is to make Mary and her different outfits. 
Below you can see a turquoise hat with a flower, a furry scarf, short sleeved top, warm spotty jumper, short skirt with pompoms, sparkly trousers, an apron with pocket, flowery boots and trainers with laces.
Mary's variety of clothing will encourage foundation pupils to consider what type of clothing they should choose on a warm/cold day and why. We focus on extending the use of language and literacy here by discussing their own experiences of choosing clothes for different seasons/weathers.  
Here are the 'pretty maids all in a row.' They are smaller and more simple than Mary as they are not a main focus of the storyboard, but very important little characters all the same. 

Here is is the final storyboard with my amazing group.
There are lots of areas for further development and learning: Counting the bricks on Mary's shed, talking about the types of flowers, the weather in Mary's garden and in real life, suitable clothing, imagining our own garden, etc.
I absolutely loved working on this project and looking forward to future ones with my group!

Foamy Fish at Belfast City Council's National Play Day

Earlier in the summer I facilitated sea-side arts and crafts for the National Play Day at Lady Dixon Park. 
We created foam fish, which could be used during play time around the park. They could also be used as key rings, bag charms, decorations in bedrooms... whatever the children fancy!
Children practiced cutting, glueing, tracing, drawing patterns and threading pipe cleaners. 
More complex fish have greater attention paid to scales, fins, tails and eyes. 

Thursday 16 August 2012

Castlereagh Borough Council Summer Scheme

I visited 5 community centres to deliver art workshops during Castlereagh Borough Council's summer scheme 2012. 
I really enjoyed meeting all the participants and youth leaders again and we had lots of fun creating mini aquariums. 
We discussed what kind of creatures are found under the sea, in aquariums and in our fish bowls at home. We cut out the creatures from colourful and patterned paper and used pencils and felt tips for the water. As you can see below everyone came up with lots of great ideas. Here are my favourite ones...!
Love the pop up shells!
And finally, one massive group work showing a porthole on a ship looking out to sea. What creatures can you spot?

Screen printing at InterAct Youth Arts Festival 2012

Full information and photos are in the 'Arts Festival' section at the top of this site. 
Here are a few photos to give you a taster of the amazing designs we created! 

Screen printing at Crescent Art Centre

On a rainy August afternoon what's better to do than design and print your own T-shirts in Crescent Art Centre! I worked with a small group of teenagers to design and print unique designs using lots of vibrant colours. 
First, we draw the final design and decide what colours to use. We need one stencil for each colour. The design above has 5 colours so we must cut 5 separate stencils. Look how they come together to form a complete image below!
The example below shows three stencils for three colours and how it looks when printed.
The amazing final designs!

Monday 2 July 2012

Mental Health and Wellbeing Project with Aspen Beacon Centre

We created lots of individual and group art work over our 6 weeks together. 
I really enjoyed getting to work with this group and hope to work with them again!

More details and photos are in 'Themed Projects' section of this website. 

Public Launch for School's Art Project in Forestside

The launch of our artwork in Forestside Shopping Centre was on Thursday. All three schools came along for photographs and we had a great morning.
Thanks to all the sponsors (Castlereagh Borough Council, OFMDFM and Forestside) for making the project a possibility. 
See more details in 'Themed Projects' on this website.

Cow Parade 2012 in Northern Ireland

I was lucky enough to be invited by Newtownabbey Borough Council to take part in the world famous Cow Parade 2012 in Northern Ireland. 
I worked with 2 primary schools near Ballyclare to design and paint the mini-moo. It shows individual pupil interests and personalities, which join together to form one united community. 
See more details in the 'Parade' section of this website. 

Monday 4 June 2012

Essential Skills with teenagers: Last workshop of the term!

Here are a few photos of our self portraiture work today: Look at the whole portfolio further down the archive list!

Friday 1 June 2012

Mini Aquariums

During my third workshop with the mother and children's group at Edmund Rice School's Cluster, we made mini aquariums using paper plates, colourful paper and colouring pencils. We had lots of fun thinking about what lived under the sea. Unfortunately I only have one photo! 

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Diversity throughout NI Project

Here are the final artworks created with St Ita's Primary, Cregagh Primary and Millennium Primary Schools. The project is funded by Castlereagh Borough Council and permanently exhibited in Forestside Shopping Centre. I loved every minute of it! 
More details and photos of how it was made are in 'Themed Projects.'

Saturday 5 May 2012

Recycled Robots

On a bright and sunny Thursday afternoon I worked with ten children (5 to 10 years old) in Donegall Pass Community Centre. They are learning about reuse, renew and recycle so I decided to show them how to make robots out of throw away items. 
We used polystyrene, bottle tops, springs, plastic bottles, coloured thread and much more!
And for the finishing touch, glitter. Lots and lots of glitter!
Using all the materials above, plus more scattered across a second table, we made very unique robots. 
The glitter table!