Huish Episcopi Academy - Great Crane Art Workshops

Hilda Vaughan initially got involved in the Great Crane Project as a volunteer - until we discovered her wealth of artistic talent!  Hilda has now been engaged by Somerset Art Works (SAW) to deliver a series of Great Crane inspired art workshops for Year 8 pupils at Huish Episcopi Academy.

The first session involved an introduction to the Great Crane Project and visit to Greylake Nature Reserve to learn about the importance of the Somerset Levels habitat.  Students took sketchbooks and collected images and ideas for future workshops.


Over the next few weeks the 14 students - aged 12 and 13 - will be designing and creating papier mache crane inspired sculptures.  These will be exhibited in Somerset Art Weeks 2011 together with all the other art work created through the Great Crane Art Project.


These are some images from the intro session at the school.

The session started with an introduction to the wider Great Crane Project

Hilda brought examples of crane sculptures to show the students

Second Community Workshop - Art in Nature - Sat 13 November 2010

Our second community workshop at the West Sedgemoor RSPB Reserve provided participants with an exciting opportunity to not only see the cranes feeding, but also flying, quite a sight!  After a morning session out on the reserve the afternoon was spent creating crane-inspired artwork under the guidance artist Kitty Hillier. 

Kitty gave instructions about mixing paint colours and creating a variety of tones.  No black paint was provided so dark colours had to be mixed using available colours.  This created some beautiful effects and it was amazing to see the colours of the landscape and  'mood' of the open moor and expanses of sky reflected in the art work.

These images are from the 13 November workshop (see previous posts for images from 25 October).  Look out for an exciting installation of the life-size painted crane cut-outs in Somerset Art Weeks Autumn 2011.

Damon Bridge introducing the Great Crane Project

Beautiful landscape inspired art work

Talking about the art work is an important aspect of the workshop

Cranes propped up against the wall to dry

Art in Nature - Community Workshops

Held at the West Sedgemoor RSPB Reserve, just outside Curry Rivel, these workshops were an opportunity for local people to join the Great Crane Project and discover the wonders of cranes. We started by exploring the wetland habitat via trailer ride and short walk in the morning and then spent the afternoon creating crane-inspired artwork under the guidance of a professional local artist Kitty Hillier.

On 25th October we were lucky enough to see the cranes from the hide - an unexpected and rare treat!

The following pictures are images from the 25th October workshop.  The life-size painted crane cut-outs will be used as part of an outdoor installation for Somerset Art Weeks Autumn 2011.

All aboard the trailer for an exploration of the wetland habitat

Walk led by Amy, one of the crane 'mums'

In the hide 

We couldn't believe how lucky we were to actually see the cranes feeding nearby

Back to the barn, we fixed bamboo legs to the crane cut-outs and began to paint

Artist Kitty Hillier guided the process, encouraging everyone to use their own

 creative ideas to mix paint colours and design their own crane

It was cold in the barn but everyone worked with great concentration

Amy and Roland have been busy rearing and nurturing the young cranes,
here they are getting involved in the art workshop

  

WIRE WORKSHOP 2 - HIGH HAM PRIMARY SCHOOL - MONDAY 11th OCTOBER

Posted by Fiona Campbell - Primary School Lead Artist
Following on from the first Workshop (see below), plans for the second were similar.  My wire workshop followed swiftly on from a session about the Great Crane Project run by Great Crane Project volunteers, all of whom remained with me to help the children with the workshop and train for later workshops which they would be delivering themselves.

The High Ham pupils were younger - years 3 & 4 - so despite the success of Friday's Workshop, I did have concerns about whether they would be able to manipulate the wire and tools sufficiently, with effective results.  Again, expectations were exceeded and I was very impressed by their sensible yet enthusiastic approach to the 2 hour session.  They knew their stuff on cranes - put to the test during the introduction - and produced some delightful line drawings for their templates, based on crane imagery (as in Workshop 1).

It was good to see a few bulrushes appear in this workshop - a little simpler to construct but very strong forms nevertheless!  Some very dextrous twisting, connecting and pattern-making emerged from young fingers - with a little help from adults.  Zigzag patterns and spirals suggesting feathers or wings were beautifully created, and most students managed to complete their pieces - with a mammoth final effort in the last 15 minutes!  

 

All students, in both Workshops, seemed to have been very proud of their work as we discussed it at the end, leaving with a great sense of achievement in their creations.  I hope most will manage to see their work on display next year at Somerset Art Works 2011.

WIRE WORKSHOP 1 - STOKE ST. GREGORY AND BURROWBRIDGE PRIMARY SCHOOLS - FRIDAY 8th OCTOBER

Posted by Fiona Campbell - Primary School Lead Artist
I was very happy to be asked by Somerset Art Works to start off the delivery of Art Projects to Primary Schools as part of the wonderful Great Crane Project, and to facilitate further workshops for Great Crane Project volunteers to carry out.  After completing all the preparations for the Primary School Workshops - gathering materials, resources and imagery, including making various templates for students to use, I did have a few concerns about the timescale of 2 hours being adequate for the fairly ambitious wirework project I was planning to deliver! 


The first Workshop was held in a wonderful spacious village hall for a group of 30 year 5 & 6 pupils from Stoke St. Gregory and Burrowbridge Schools.  Setting up went smoothly and the Great Crane Project volunteers and students duly arrived after lunch, the morning had been spent learning about the project with the volunteers.  Following a brief introduction with some examples of crane art and wire work, students were asked to create a decorative line drawing, based on various imagery supplied.  This included cranes (standing, flying, dancing, calling...), their food, (spiders, dragonflies, craneflies, wheat...) and habitat (bulrushes, grasses...)  It was great to have such an enthusiastic, responsive group!  Within the limited time constraints, each child managed to select and complete a decorative design of their own, keeping to instructions on scale and style.  Here are some examples of the lovely drawings they produced:

15 minutes later, the children were shown the next stage - how to create a 2-d wirework piece from their design.  Techniques such as twisting, attaching, bending and creating different patterns were demonstrated.  With health and safety issues covered, colourful wire and pliers were issued to each student, who then proceeded to trace around their individual drawings with twisted lengths of wire, to create their initial structure.  Colours were then added to create more decorative effects, such as black, silver and red for cranes.

With plenty of encouragement and help from Beccy (SAW) and Great Crane volunteers (providing the intergenerational aspect in addition to gaining some wirework training), the children worked extremely hard to complete their pieces in time.  New techniques were discovered and adapted by some children and we were all highly impressed by their results!  Below is an array of their work.