This term at Pelham Art Club we are taking part in a large scale project organised by the arts organisation AccessArt.

The aim of the project is simple: to inspire the AccessArt audience of all ages (children, teenagers and adults) to make a sewn drawing of their home on a 20 cm square piece of fabric. The sewn squares will then be sent to AccessArt, where artist Andrea Butler is busy bringing the individual pieces together into an artwork (the AccessArt Village) which celebrates the diversity of their audience. The finished artwork will tour to venues in the UK in 2018, before being split into smaller pieces which will be gifted to schools.

During Day 2 of our Half Term Course – The Art of Change, our game based on decisions and consequences really started to take shape. Artist Sarah Carne took the children on a 2-day adventure into conceptual art with a political twist.

In this Half Term’s art course, children alongside artist Sarah Carne have been getting just a little bit political in the lead up to the General Election. We have been using art to help children find their voice, explore how decisions have consequences and how they can make a difference in the world.

During the second day of our two day course for the Easter Holidays, Thinking in Three Dimensions, we continued experimenting with building, joining, wrapping, painting, gold leafing and the children’s favourite ‘free making’ sessions.

This Easter holiday we have been Thinking in Three Dimensions with artist Abigail Hunt.

Day 2 at the Animation Station saw children developing their animation skills in new ways, we experimented with full body animation, made new characters using collage and perfected our skills using the i-motion app.

We kicked off to a great start with Day 1 of the Animation Station, led by artist and illustrator Amy Pennington, supported by artist Veena Scialo,  a recent animation graduate and another student of illustration and animation. Our very well qualified team began this chilly day with a warm up in the gym!

Children are used to glossy colour magazines in full colour, but we chose to make a different kind of zine – they may not be used to the muted colours,  limited palette and matt texture of this product.

Artist Ania Bas led the second day of our literary inspired course in collaboration with Wimbledon Bookfest.

On Day 1 we concentrated on what makes a charismatic character and on Day 2 we looked at what makes a sensational storyline. Our findings are to be compiled into a ‘Zine’ aimed at budding authors. The title of which will be:

INK – A basic guide to building a Children’s Book

As always we began the afternoon with a warm up – for our minds, bodies and fingers. First we made a drawing as Ania told a short story – we weren’t allowed to take out pencil off the paper at all. A continuous line drawing!

As part of a collaboration with Wimbledon Bookfest we worked with artist Ania Bas to create and publish a Zine in a weekend.

Taking literary inspiration we decided to publish a zine for budding authors on what makes a good children’s book from the point of view of the children. We would have two afternoons to produce and edit the material.

Architect and designer James Sale, from Collaborative Design and Build, joined us for two days of large-scale making, where we learnt about the principles of architecture and design.

Architect and designer James Sale, from Collaborative Design and Build, joined us for two days of large-scale making, where we learnt about the principles of architecture and design.

This half term we have been working with a great bunch of children of mixed ages in our Visual Storytelling course with illustrator Amy Pennington.

On Day 1 the children developed  amazing new characters in groups which they took on new adventures in Day 2.

We began Day 2 with some more warm up exercises. We played a game called pass the face; exploring the emotions and expressions our characters might need.

llustrator Amy Pennington joined us once more to run our popular illustration course.

Over the last 9 months I have been working with colleague and friend Alicia Miller to programme the Engage International Conference in Glasgow.

Engage are the national association for gallery education the UK’s most effective advocacy and support organisation for gallery education.

In Day 2 of our Wild Art course run by artist and Forest School practitioner Philippa Snell we continued to think about dwellings for the little people that may inhabit the common when we are not around. In Day 1 we learnt to build a round house for the Hazel Folk using willow to weave through whittled hazel rods knocked securely into the ground.

This year’s Wild Art course led by Artist and Forest School practitioner Philippa Snell looks at the idea of building a new civilisation.

Starting from the idea that a tribe of tiny people – the Choo Choo tribe – are finding their dwellings destroyed by clumsy Wombles, we began making new places for them to inhabit.

The second day of our Children’s Illustration for Wimbledon Bookfest enabled children to develop characters, taking them on exciting new adventures as part of a team. Children attending the first day of the course designed our characters and those joining for Day 2 developed scenes and stories to bring them to life in some amazing adventures. A few children attended both days but many chose to do one or the other – developing different skills in each day.

We were invited to work with Wimbledon Bookfest this year to put on a two day illustration course for children.

Artist Ania Bas and illustrator Amy Pennington took on the challenge to lead a group of children in activities that helped them develop ideas on a grand scale for new characters.These characters began larger than life then were edited down to form smaller drawings that could begin their life in a new story.

At Children’s Art School, not only do we work directly with artists but in our after school art clubs and courses we reference living, practicing artists all the time so that children can see the real place art has in our world and the value that it has.