By Mostyn de Beer

Mostyn de Beer is an experienced artist educator based in Sweden. Mostyn is especially interested in environmental art; his practice investigates links between creating art and environmental education. In this post, Mostyn looks back over the workshops he facilitated in 2021 and reflects on the artwork created and the playful moments shared with the children.

If you missed other posts in the series, you can find them here.

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“The life of Madge Gill that Sophie Dutton recounts here gives us real insight into the challenges that Madge Gill experienced, and how these challenges would have been common among women at the time. When we study the work of Artists, it adds a rich context to our experience of their work to consider their personal history, and helps us ask questions like ‘why do you think the Artist painted in this way or was inspired by this subject matter?’ If you introduce your class to Madge Gill, begin with looking back over her younger life to try and better understand her motivations as an Artist” – Rachel, AccessArt

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What We Like About This Resource….

“This project provides a real opportunity for children to engage with a range of different processes to produce truly individual final results. Jan Miller is an experienced teacher and connects her projects well with learning outcomes. In this case, children are encouraged to have a loose approach and to make their own creative decisions – which is such a valuable part of any child (or adults!) creative education”. – Rachel, AccessArt

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“This project links poignant subject matter with meaningful art processes and local history. What we learn about the re purposing of materials, (in this case spent ammunition) re affirms how we can use what is around us as a starting point to making and creating. You could extend or adapt this project by looking at broken pottery, re purposing that into new sculptures that link with Roman or other local historical cultures” – Rachel, AccessArt

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Henry Moore’s Shelter Drawings

Remembrance Day Soldiers

For Remembrance Day

What We Like About This Resource….

“It’s interesting to hear Theresa describe Printmaking as a social activity, with the shared use of materials and equipment so central to the practice. This could be a positive way of working for lots of children in school, where instead of just working on individual art work, they can collaborate and embrace the creative sharing experience!” – Tobi, AccessArt.

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“The sentiment behind this resource idea is lovely and it provides an opportunity to really develop some fine motor skills as well as independence of approach. Taking ownership of the medal design means the sense of achievement is heightened beyond the children just being given one. You can really imagine the positive energy that would surround this activity within a classroom, with each child working on a shared project but embarking on their own creative journey.”  – Rachel, AccessArt

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Featured in the ‘Playful Making’ pathway

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“It’s great to see music being explored in this way, and combining it with making creates a really interesting immersive project. This activity would work well as part of an extended project looking at musical instruments around the world and some of the natural materials they are made from.” – Rachel, AccessArt

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A Cheerful Orchestra

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“The sense of journey and feeling of movement is such an interesting part of Cas’ textile work here. We love how location and place is communicated through the variety of fluid and meandering textile marks used. Cas’ Romani background as well as early experience living in Japan make for a rich cultural backdrop to her work. The themes here could be explored in the classroom by asking children to use memories of places they’ve visited to produce a creative response using fabrics and mixed media” – Rachel, AccessArt

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Landscape Sculptures

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“It’s lovely to see a resource that centres on a particular material and the scope it offers. I particularly like how the dogwood is used here to make wooden beads. This idea could be developed further by looking at how wood has been used to make jewelry throughout history and within many different cultures.” – Rachel, AccessArt.

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“We love how this activity provides an opportunity to explore a well known Artist’s work, through focussing on their materials and techniques. The children looked at Frank Bowling’s work before creating their own individual responses that retained individual ownership – something we advocate as part of a rich and balanced visual arts education. It was also great to see how a professional artist visited the school to further enhance the children’s experience.” – Rachel, AccessArt

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“Rosie highlights the importance of embracing a wide variety of interests and ways of working into our wider creative practice, resulting in wonderfully rich and very personal explorations and outcomes.

There are so many clues in this resource for teachers. Look out for how Rosie slows down her whole process into a series of interconnected stages, which weave in and out of each other. These include time for research (collecting and observing), analysing and revisiting, drawing, making and finally documenting.” Paula, AccessArt

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Year 3 Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake Homework

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