Children's Art School has been very quiet over the last few years, but never went away.

I have been leading an Art and DT department at a local prep school while colleagues kept our founding After-School Art Club at Pelham Primary School thriving.

Covid-19 meant that our art workshop activity had to stop, and was life changing for me in many ways, as it meant that Children's Art School became reformulated in my mind and is re-born as Hags Pottery.

In 2020, as COVID19 hit, we moved into our new house. Things did not go quite as smooth as planned with our planned renovation, but, as we turned our lives on their heads, a new idea for how to live our lives was born. (More on this in another blog post)

As the house renovation took place – my little studio gathered momentum at the bottom of the garden – it was first a storage unit while we moved house but was soon transformed into Hags Pottery. You can see its progress through pictures on my Instagram account and through the captions below.

The second day of our Christmas Course built on a productive day’s making during Day 1, where we made a set of papers for collaging. We made brushes, for painting our papers and filters for taking photographs.

During the second day we used a template for cutting loads of abstract shapes from our beautiful drawn and painted papers.

Artist Abigail Hunt returned to Children’s Art School to lead another exploratory two-day course looking at painting, collage and printmaking.

Children got off to a busy start by making their very own painting utensils. A variety of materials were used to make brushes, rollers and stampers. 

We used feathers, bubble wrap, wood offcuts, wire – anything we could get our hands on.

During Day 2 at the Drawing Laboratory with Millie Nice we took some of our ideas further and continued the theme of becoming drawing scientists!

Artist and illustrator Millie Nice spent the day with us today to explore the limitless possibilities of drawing. She asked the children to approach drawing as if it was a scientific process, helping us to find out about the world around us.

We began the morning by making a portfolio case to hold our work. As children arrived they used mirrors to make a self-portrait on their folder.

The current climate for art education is often disheartening, with art departments under increasing pressure, teachers everywhere fighting for their subject to be valued and for people to understand the importance of art education in a fraught battle ground dominated by the STEM subjects (Science Technology Engineering and Maths).  Those who advocate STEAM  – add the A for Arts - acknowledge the importance of creativity in any process.

I have been involved in a project with The Courtauld Gallery (where I work as a freelance tutor) looking at the links between Art and Maths, stemming from the idea that any subject can be taught effectively through Art and in this case also touching on History, Geography, Science and Technology. We began by examining the Islamic Metalwork and Italian Maiolica pottery in the Courtauld’s varied and beautiful collection, best known for its French Impressionist work.

In the second day of our ‘Rebel Art School’ children worked with artist Kate Squires to make more sculptural works that extended their creative thinking.

Over the two days the children constantly re-evaluated what they were doing as Kate changed their materials, instructions, groupings and scenario’s to create new challenges at every turn.

At the ‘Rebel Art School’ this Easter, we aimed to examine the nature of rules and how breaking them can help fuel creativity, and lead us to approach art-making from fresh angles.

On Day 2 of our architecturally inspired art course children got to work as structural engineers, to refine their structures, then morphed into interior decorators, furniture designers and town planners as the city developed and took on its own life.

Architect and Designer James Sale joined us from his practice Co-DB (Collaborative design and build) to lead our popular architecture inspired course. Describing themselves as a team of experienced designers, doers and makers they are well placed to help children tackle large scale building projects, encouraging them to solve problems and see opportunities wherever they arise.

I am very proud to have my article published in NSEAD magazine (National Society for Education in Art and Design), Issue 21 ‘The Student Voice’ Spring 2018

The Article describes a 2-day workshop, The Art of Change devised and delivered by artist Sarah Carne with myself Annabel Johnson  for Children’s Art School in  June 2017.

About a month ago, I returned to La Biennale di Venezia 2017 – Viva Arte Viva and found myself reflecting on my past four visits and re-thinking who I am and what I do? 

We arrived for the second morning of our Wild Art on Wimbledon Common course to our undisturbed camp - always a relief to find our art work untouched by the nights activities!

Today was to be mostly about mud, so we mixed a gorgeous pile of sticky stuff for our little creative hands to work with. When the children arrived we learnt how to make mud faces.

This year’s Wild Art on Wimbledon Common was conceived and designed by artist and forest school practitioner Philippa Snell. Due to last minute unforeseen circumstances Philippa was unable to lead the course but our team were able to deliver the course with her expert tutelage! 

Bright and early we set up camp with some shelters to protect us for rain that was forecast. It really is a beautiful spot, whatever the weather and the trees give ample shelter from light rain. We prepared our kit, then welcomed the children.

Day 2 of the Animation Station for Wimbledon Bookfest saw us working on larger scale animations with artist and illustrator Amy Pennington, as well as consolidating our work on stop motion animations using the e-motion app on the i-Pad.

We started by looking at animations made at our previous animation course to give the children inspiration for new work. We looked at how to make simple props to tell a striking story, and worked in groups to storyboard our ideas once more.

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.