Summerfield Stables Workshop 5

P is for Perception

This exercise aims to take away an element of control by using materials differently, in a way that changes your perception of how they can be used to create certain visual outcomes. Trust the process. Discuss how you thought the artwork would look vs how it actually looks.

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The kid's responses

The first three images are from a pair of kids who wanted to use paints to create images but didn't want to use any traditional materials such as paint brushes. Shannon showed them how to use string to create paintings by dipping a piece in paint, laying it on paper in spirals and loops, and pulling it down towards the bottom of the page- leaving behind a unique pattern.

We decided, however, to get the kids to fold a piece of paper in half and do this with the string whilst holding one half of the paper over the other, so that they couldn't see what was happening or what patterns were being made. It was interesting to see the surprise on their faces upon unfolding the paper and seeing how the outcome differed from what they thought it would look like.

There was one older child amongst our group that didn't want to create the same art as the younger kids, they wanted to draw the horses that surrounded us. Rather than use colouring pencils or felt pens, I suggested that they could try doing a wax relief drawing. I showed them how to use a white wax crayon to draw an invisible image on a white piece of paper, then wash over the whole image with poster paints which reveals the image as the paint is rejected by the wax. We really enjoyed seeing how the image came into view before our eyes and how the child who created the image was enthralled by the process.

It was also really nice to see the image being brought into the 3D with the introduction of the saddle made out of pipe cleaners. That is something that we wouldn't have thought of and added another element to the artwork.

We also asked the kids to take pieces of paper and use wax crayons to create rubbings of different textures from around the stables. In this particular image, the group did a rubbing of tree bark and liked the marks that it left on the paper. They then decided to crumple the paper to mirror the marks left from the bark. We thought this was amazing as it gave another dimension to the image and really showed that the kids weren't afraid to do things that we might consider 'wrong'.