Outdoor Art For Schools

“Connecting the next generation to Nature is integral to my artistic practice. By taking young people onto the beach, walking on the cliffs or simply into their school grounds and making art outside it creates unique opportunities for curriculum relevant content and memories students will never forget”.

St Ives Field Trips

Specifically designed for GCSE and A Level students, these ½ day workshops can be run as part of a field trip to the historic seaside town of St Ives. They often work well in combination with one or more gallery visits to Tate St Ives & Barbara Hepworth Museum, Newlyn Art Gallery, The Exchange Gallery, Penzance or Tremenheere Sculpture Garden for which sketchbook tours can also be arranged.

Beach Sculpture Workshop – Focussing on the ideas, and artwork, of Barbara Hepworth the students get the opportunity to create 2D and 3D artworks on the beach. Particularly emphasis is placed on her idea of “truth to materials”, as this is concerned with process and development of work; so crucial at GCSE and A level and is often an aspect of coursework students struggle with.

St Ives Artist Sketchbook Tour – Walking to 4-5 historic locations around the town connected with the St Ives Artists of the mid 20^th Century, we focus on a different artist at each location and work in sketchbooks to explore their ideas and techniques.

En Plein Air Painting Workshop – Using the dramatic Cornish cliffs as a subject, this workshop is designed to loosen the students approach to landscape painting this workshop uses mixed media to create a range of different colour studies on board or canvas that can be used back at school to develop into larger, more considered pieces.

Obviously the Cornish weather can be unpredictable , so I always have “wet weather alternative” activities up my sleeve. Just in case!

Some of the schools that really see the change in their students work after the visit, and return for these workshops and gallery visits year after year include:

Woldingham School, Surrey.

Queen Anne’s School, Reading.

The Costello School, Basingstoke.

Marriotts School, Stevenage.

Exeter School, Exeter.

Hampstead School, Hampstead.

St Mary Redcliffe School, Bristol

Eltham College, Mottingham.

Sidcot School, Somerset

Chulmleigh Community College, Devon

School Residencies

Designed together with the school staff, these week long residencies are aimed at connecting the students with their school, its grounds, or surrounding area. They include ephemeral, or longer lasting, artworks created with the students that can be placed in the school grounds and include references to such topics as the history of the school, flora and fauna or local history.