Project at a primary school over a few weeks with the broad title of ‘Portraits’.

This was a hugely enjoyable and productive undertaking with a group of 20 children who embraced the subject and were fully engaged from the start with plenty of discussion.

They talked about portraits they knew, which were largely photographs.

I took in some portraits, and they wanted to know the background stories; they even gave the characters names and stories of their own.

We moved on to painting portraits of themselves, each other, or subjects they knew. Then we shared them, with contributions from everyone, interestingly some were instantly recognisable.

The artist, Margaret Mckay, brought in a completed portrait and another one ‘in progress’.  The children enjoyed asking questions on the ‘how’ and ‘why’, and about things they found difficult. Margaret addressed all of them and then provided an exercise where the children practised some new skills on drawings of blank faces, which she had prepared. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this; some said that they were going to do more when they were at home

The importance of “looking” was adopted quickly, as was the language used, “portraits and profiles, etc,”.

I believe that the children enjoyed the project and that their horizons were stretched; much of this because of their wholehearted approach.

Young Arts Co-Ordinator