Category: Community arts
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Art & Environment Saturdays 2012 : Marine Biology in Castlerock
We had a wonderful afternoon on Saturday the 29th of September in Castlerock Northern Ireland with the kids participating the Art & Environment Marine Biology workshop. We were joined at low tide by Marine Biologist David Erwin and Maxime Siseret from the Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust.
kids explore with Marine Biologist David Erwin at low tide on Castlerock Beach Northern Ireland during the Art & Environment class Saturday 
kids with biologist David Erwin on Castlerock beach during Saturday's art & environment workshop After an introductory chat about ocean life and familiarization with mollusks and other marine life frequently found in the nearby rock pools the kids were given digital cameras and launched into a scavenger hunt armed with laminated photo sheets of life forms and geological features of the North Coast beaches.
Marine Biologist David Erwin exploring with children from the Art & Environment workshop on the Castlerock Beach, Northern Ireland 
Using digital cameras in a beach scavenger hunt on Castlerock beach during the kids art & environment days 2012 David Erwin and artist McCall Gilfillan ( yes, me) kept the kids observation skills in high gear as they explored the rock pools and exposed intertidal zones on the west end of the strand. After making a circle through the dune system back towards Castlerock’s Main Street we looked together at our goal sheets to see how many of the 20 items we had documented.
kids with artwork based on environment exploration on Castlerock beach Northern Ireland
Then back to Christchurch Hall for snacks and a fantastic session of artistic interpretation using brilliantly coloured tissue and 1ft x 4ft sheets of laminated card to create big brilliant landscapes of intertidal zones and the lifeforms within them.Many many thanks to all the kids, parents, David Erwin, Maxime Siseret and Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust who have sponsored this workshop series.
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Art & Environment Saturdays : for kids and even grown-ups too!
Art & Environment Saturday workshops for kids. 29th of September 2012 Marine Biolody day in Castlerock, and 6th of October 2012 Geology day in Portrush, Northern Ireland 
These are indoor / ourdoor workshops so be dressed for exploring on the beach environment and getting messy with art materials! -
Kids classes in traditional paper-making
I am now 3 weeks in to a paper-making course with some of the P3, P4, and P5 kids from Ballyhackett Primary school and we are all having great fun, just have a look!
The kids know all the equipment they need and how to set out their tables to be ready to work. Mostly they work in pairs taking turns drawing out each sheet of paper, turning them onto the couching cloths and then absorbing excess moisture with a sponge before removing the mold.
This week the kids coordinated with their partners as they choose what colour paper they made. After making a couple of sheets with recycled shredded office paper and coloured napkins, they started to add textures to their vats from an assortment of things I brought along. The glittery stars were very popular. We also had wool, dryer lint, dried artichoke fibre. The children experimented with the materials and saw how they effected the texture of each sheet as they drew sheets from the vat.
Paper-making is such a tactile process and changing the makeup of the vat after each sheet allows the kids to get a feel for what textures they like as well as observing the changes in colour and thickness of the sheets as the makeup of the vat changes. A further stage is learning how much pulp to add after each sheet is drawn to maintain a desired consistency, and then documenting favourite recipes by proportion so they can be repeated.
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Tree Mural: ‘Planted by Rivers of Water’
This was a project I did with a church on a community retreat weekend in Newcastle, Co. Down. The group had taken the theme for the weekend from the Bible verse in Psalm 1 which speaks of a person being like a ‘tree, planted by rivers of water’. I interpret this metaphor as an image of ‘rooted-ness’ , of understanding one’s source and one’s dependance on God for life and sustenance. This project was designed to allow participants to interact in a personal way with the metaphor by making their own leaves for the tree and by creating ‘ribbons’ of water for the river inscribed with text that they had found sustaining in their own life.
As this was an inter-generational project, the art materials were chosen to be accessible to any age. Participants approached the art table and created their own elements to be incorporated into the mural at the end of the weekend retreat.
In preparation for the weekend I painted a background on three panels as a tryptic. After the weekend retreat concluded I gathered the elements and assembled the mural at home adding texture to the tree trunk and weaving fine threads of shiny card and sparkly glue through the river to create a sense of motion. The tryptic was then mounted on board and open framed so that the elements could still be touched.
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Papermaking
Tomorrow I start a paper-making course at my son’s school. It has been a little while since I have taught it so I am giving myself a little refresher tonight. I went through all my mold and deckle sets and tightened up the mesh on the small molds. I checked the blenders to see that they still run after being in storage, and found lots of squeezys of paper pulp fro previous sessions to help us start off. The school is in its final year of application for the green flag eco-schools credenitals. We will be recycling the shredded paper from the office (with colourful additions of course) then I plan to move on to incorporating vegetable matter. I find banana skins and broccoli stocks work nicely but anything fibrous can be used, artichoke hearts are beautiful, but rather a lot of work to prepare. Looking forward to working with the kids and getting my hands in lovely paper pulp.
