Second class with Westhill (P4s)
Final Class with Westhill, and indeed the final class out of all 8 “Consultations” with the kids from all the schools.
We had a brilliant time with Mrs Garden’s class – everyone brought in their sketchbooks – and everyone got right back into drawing and discussing their work with each other.
The format of discussion of “favourite” drawings, selection of a single favourite and re-production on a larger scale worked really well, it was great to see the kids supporting each other, asking questions and helping each other pick and produce their final drawings.
Everyone beavered away, and when we finished, had a “show and tell” session – where the kids stood in front of the class, and explained their work.
Superbly bright, and insightful, we’ve got a lot to work with.
Second class with Skene (p1-7)
We’re back at Elrick today for our final class with the school.
It’s great to see that the kids have been asking their parents and families about the area, what they like, dislike, know of etc.
A few kids have forgotten their sketch books, but no worries – we work away on new drawings, discussing old drawings, deciding what we think are the best ideas and drawings, and making bigger versions on massive bits of paper. Studious and dedicated as ever.
At the end we have a wee “show and tell” session, where the kids stand up and tell everyone about their favourite drawings, what they are of, what they liked about them etc… below is a selection of Photos from the show and tell.
a big thanks to Ms Andrew & Mrs Nicol once again, for their help and patience with us. It’s been fun!
Second class with Crombie (P7)
We’re back in Crombie Primary School today, for the final class with Mrs Repper and the P7′s.
Quite a few of the sketchbooks were left at home today, but no fear, we’ve still got a lot of ideas and discussions to hold about the project – and about how the pupils see Westhill…
It does seem that the class have been busy over the holidays, and quite a few new fresh drawings and observations are coming back.
There’s also some lovely acrostic poems being written, which seem to be quite popular in the schools, some lovely words to use in the prints.
We promise to come back for a quick visit to show more developed work, once we have it…
Meeting with Anne Marquiss @ Westhill Academy
We met with Anne Marquiss in the Art Department of Westhill Academy to discuss the possibility of getting some pupils to help us produce the prints for the final show in the Westhill Library. We also discussed the possibility of getting the pupils to work together to create some kind of magazine – or document of writing, photography, art and design… we’ll look more at these possibilities… more soon.
First Class with Westhill (P4)
We have our first class with the P4′s in Westhill Primary school today. It’s quite exciting, as we have to use the new entrance for the Primary, which is adjacent to to the new Westhill Library (and it’s looking fantastic)
We’re greeted by the beaming pupils and the lovely Mrs Garden… We gave the class our presentation, explaining the idea of looking at Westhill in a fun way, looking to inspire the kids to see places, spaces and people as characterised “monsters” – the stuff of legends.
We’re sadly not joined by Jim Fiddes, so we do our best to show his photos – and a lot of interest comes from these, and it’s great to see quite a lot of the kids recognise the places in the old photos of Skene and Westhill of yesteryear.
We drew, we wrote, we joked, and did impressions & accents… And got quite a few bulging sketch books. Below are a selection of photos from the class. We’ll return next week, for our follow up session, and review of the “homework”…
Second Class with Elrick (P4/5)
This is our first…second class, that is, our return to Elrick to show some of the work we’ve done so far and also to collect the sketchbooks from the pupils, brimming with new ideas and drawings from “homework” over the holidays.
We got the kids to discuss their work in groups, showing their drawings to each other and trying to pick their favourites, adding or creating new drawings as they work. Gabi and Phil visited the tables prompting discussion, pushing the questions of “What has this drawing got to do with Westhill?” and getting them to critically review their work (“what are your favouite bits, and what bits don’t you like?). It’s great to see the kids work together, question each other, test each other, agree and spport each other.
We asked the pupils to work on larger – or more “honed” versions of their favourites – on MASSIVE bits of paper, and after the final 45 mins of the class, we had a “show and tell” – where the groups held their drawings up in front of their classmates and explain their creations…
a Massive thanks to Ms Smith and her class for all their hard work, and we look forward to seeing them again, hopefully before the completion of the work for the library!
Oh, and I (Phil) promised to animate Joel’s skater, as it is rad. (Click on it to animate it)
First Class with Skene (P1-P7)
We’re with Skene Primary School today, for our first class with them… It’s an amazing wee school, such a small intake of kids, that the class actually consists of P1′s all the way to P7′s. (21 kids in total)
These guys are so well-behaved and are obviously used to helping each other and discussing ideas as a group, they are great! We’re also helped by the fantastic Mrs Nicol & Ms Andrew (big thanks to you two for being so enthusiastic and helpful). We were sadly not joined by Jim Fiddes today, but we did show his photos, and did our best to describe what they were. (And Phil made some bits up…he he)
We set out with the whiteboard presentation, and get the kids thinking about their local area… It’s interesting being at Skene, they’ve already got a lot of heritage and history documented on their walls, and there’s a strong awareness of their legends associated with the area. Ghost stories about the Loch of Skene and Alexander Skene of Skene (The Wizard of Skene) were quite prominent in our discussions.
When we set to work, drawing and writing, it was really positive, fun and productive. Interesting to see how the ideas spring up, how one idea can spread through a group, how the interpretations and personalisations twist and turn… making new twists in the drawings and stories told around the “monsters”… We’ve got quite a lot of great drawings that do address unique aspects of the area… a lot to inspire us, fantastic.
We also had a lovely acrostic poem from one of the girls today:
Scary tales,
Kreepy monsters!
Eagles, Ogres and Ghosts,
Never doubt these monsterous tales, cos
Everything happened at Skene!
First Class with Crombie (P7′s)
Wow! What a class! Gabi and Phil were working with 31 P7s today, with the help and guidance from Mrs Repper and another guest appearance from Skene Heritage group’s Jim Fiddes.
We have to say, it was an absolute pleasure to work with the Crombie P7′s – Giving our presentation, they were attentive, very good at listening and also asking excellent questions (“What do you feel llike when you make ‘good art’?” – “what’s good art?” – “you know, when an artist is passionate about making new work”… that’s an 11 year old’s point of view… amazing!
Jim gave an excellent presentation, showing a mix of new images, based on what he had learned from Monday’s class feedback. We also had a quick QnA with Jim about the Photos he was showing, and it was really interesting to see that the pupils did know where the “old buildings” were, still situated in Westhill, so we’ve got a great contextual awareness of “place” – with a new understanding of “history” supporting it… excellent!
Gabi and Phil then ran the class, enthusing the class with suggestions and examples of their own work. As with Elrick on monday, a few gems of ideas emerged, but needless to say, sketchbooks were filled with amazing drawings, poems, paragraphs of creative writing and general losening of the creative nerves. A blunderbus of activity and enthusiasm. Gabi and Phil certainly do have a lot of material to filter through – but there is plenty of inspiration, that’s for sure.
Preparing for our second presentation [Crombie]
After our fun and productive presentation / drawing / writing session with Elrick on Monday, we’re preparing a few extra things for Crombie today – we’d noticed that after the presentation, the kids were a bit intimidated by their blank books, so, we’ve printed out some extra A4 sheets with Questions and Hints for the kids to reflect upon, instead of having to remember all the questions posed to them in the presentation… we’ll see how (or if) this helps.
