What fun we had when Year 4 classes (children aged 9) from Horn Park School visited Bankside Gallery earlier this year! Royal Watercolour Society artists Olivia O’Sullivan and Gertie Young led the sessions which were designed to give children a rare opportunity to make and reflect on art in a gallery setting, and engage in expressive work with watercolour and mixed media. As well as using their own ideas, the children were encouraged to respond to the professional artworks on display. Everyone had a great time!
“I’ve never done anything like it. I felt it was quite different, and I enjoyed looking at all the different styles of painting. I’m just usually used to seeing one or two different types of artwork, but at the gallery I saw loads and loads of different designs — different kinds of artists. Some did really abstract paintings — do you know what I mean? And others did very, very realistic and tiny, exact paintings. And then there are people like me, sort of in between — going from one thing to another. So thank you for that!” (Bethany)
“There was loads of art I really like. There was one of a train — like a train station or tube station — with collage, cutting up the paper. We talked a little bit about that.” (Leyton) “I liked the paintings we did — they were really cool and nice. I liked the colours and how they were all different,” said Roman. The children loved using unfamiliar materials and the results were amazing! “I liked painting messy,” (Michelle) “I used random colours that looked good together and added swirls, then I started a collage… It ended up looking fantastic!” (Aisha) “I decided to use every single material.” (Bethany)
Kayva told us ‘‘It was one of the best school trips and I enjoyed just being there.’’ Reggie added ‘‘and I liked seeing everyone happy and drawing’’. And so did we!
