Take One Picture - Artist in School

This morning the announcement of my art residency in Arbury Primary School assembly was met with gasps of excitement!

Every year the school participates in 'Take One Picture', a National Gallery project aimed at encouraging school pupils to interact with and be inspired by art. In the last few years they have studied Renoir, Hokusai, Klee and Seurat. This morning the teacher reminisced with the children about these pictures concluding with "and THIS is the picture we will be focussing on this year" - showing a blank canvas! "I'm showing you a blank picture because it's a picture that hasn't even been painted yet! In fact it's a picture that is going to be painted right in front of you all here in school!.. Not everyone will have heard of this artist yet but one person in this school knows her very well" Esme (my 6 year old) puts her hand up "It's my mum" she says and stands up in front of the whole school, fit to burst with joy!

So I will start my week (after half term) by painting on top of a giant canvas on the school stage in front of 450 people, with an aerial view projected onto a large screen. Every pupil in the school will take it in turns to come onto the stage, look closely and make their own mark on my painting.
Once completed the painting will be displayed in an exhibition of my work in the school entrance hall and I will edit a video of it's creation for the classes to use. The week will include a 'meet the artist' session where I will take my materials to each class, discuss my approach and answer their questions, and an 'artist workshop' where each child will contribute to one of 7 large collaborative pieces created with me using my techniques and concepts.
I have created a sheet of ideas for teachers to develop the themes of my work in a variety of curriculum subjects throughout the week (from poetry, to dance, history to maths and science). The week will conclude with a school exhibition of the work the children produce in response to meeting me and my artwork.