Jo Allen and Rachael Causer: Relief Printmaking at Ridgefield Primary School

Artist educators, Jo Allen and Rachael Causer, were invited to take inspiration from the 40 Artist Educator Project Resources and deliver an all day workshop at Ridgefield Primary School, Cambridge for year five pupils.

This was part of evaluating the ACE funded 40 Artist Educator Project and gaining insight as to how artists use and adapt AccessArt resources to feed their own teaching and practice.

To see more about 40 Artist Educator Project and its evaluation, have a look at the 40 Artist Educator Evaluation Space.

Pupils at Ridgefield Primary School with artists Rachael Causer and Jo Allen
Pupils and Mrs. Timmis at Ridgefield Primary School with their work and artists Jo Allen & Rachael Causer and Sheila Ceccarelli from AccessArt

 

Many thanks to Ridgefield Primary School for hosting the session and a heart felt thanks to Class 5 and their wonderful teacher Kayleigh Timmis for going for it and producing such out standing work!


Introduction by Jo Allen and Rachael Causer

We were inspired by Claire Louise Mather’s amazing 40 Artist Educator resource Responding to Place, and drew upon elements of it as starting point for our own project.

We loved the focus on research and observational drawing but decided to take the project in a slightly different direction by getting the students to create imaginary buildings from photographs of Cambridge.

We showed them the work of photographer Philip Dujardin, which inspired an interesting discussion about architecture, its physicality and the way we inhabit buildings.

We wanted our project to involve a very open-ended exploratory mark and printmaking session that would allow students to explore texture, tone and colour to produce a wide range of papers to college with later. It was important that the emphasis was on experimentation, encouraging the students to take risks and enjoy exploring through process.

We loved the way Claire got the students to layer their line drawing with collaged buildings underneath, and drew from this part of her project. After making trace drawings of their imagined buildings, the students used their textured papers to collage underneath their line drawings, layering flat areas of pattern, texture and tone to their building, exploring the relationship between line, tone and form.


Part One:

Pupils at Ridgefield Explore Paint, Texture and Mark-Making

Pupils at Ridgefield explore paint!
Pupils at Ridgefield explore paint and mark making!

 

Busy classroom with three activities: exploring paint, printmaking and making rubbings
Busy classroom with three activities: exploring paint, printmaking and making rubbings

 

Making Textured Rubbings

Artist Rachael Causer demonstrates to year five pupils at Ridgefield how to make a rubbing with graphite
Artist Rachael Causer demonstrates to year five pupils at Ridgefield how to make a rubbing with graphite – Photo by Loren Mccarthy

 

Pupil using a graphite stick to take a textured rubbing outside her classroom
Pupil using a graphite stick to take a textured rubbing outside her classroom

 

Pupil taking a rubbing of the chicken coup!
Pupil taking a rubbing of the chicken coup!

 

Close up of rubbing being taken by a pupil outside the classroom
Close up of rubbing being taken by a pupil outside the classroom

 

Using Relief Printing to Make Textured Paper

Jo Allen gets pupils to explore relief printing and creating textured, printed paper
Jo Allen gets pupils to explore relief printing and creating textured, printed paper

 

Textures for relief printing
Textures for relief printing

 

Exploring printmaking and making printed, textured paper
Exploring printmaking and making printed, textured paper

 

Prtinting from bubble wrap to create textured paper
Prtinting from bubble wrap to create textured paper

 

Prtinting from bubble wrap to create textured paper
Printing from bubble wrap to create textured paper

 

Using Paint to Mix Colours and Explore Mark Making

Rachael introduces techniques for mark making with paint
Rachael introduces techniques for mark making with paint

 

Mixing colours - a pupil's palette and tooth brush for mark making
Mixing colours – a pupil’s palette and tooth brush for mark making

 

Pupils explore mark making with paint
Pupils explore mark making with paint and candle wax

 

Mark making table
Mark making table

 

Pupil explores mark making by blowing paint across the paper with a straw
Pupil explores mark making by blowing paint across the paper with a straw

 

Creating textures with paint and wax
Creating textures with paint and wax

 

Mark making with paint
Mark making with paint

 


Part Two:
Introducing Collage and the Work of Artist Filip Dujardin

Pupil cuts an image of a local building to collage
Pupil cuts an image of a local building to collage

 

Cutting up existing buildings to make new ones!
Cutting up existing buildings to make new ones!

 

Pupils created their own buildings using cut up images of existing Cambridge buildings
Pupils created their own buildings using cut up images of existing Cambridge buildings

 

Cutting up images of buildings for collage work
Cutting up images of buildings for collage work

 

Example of pupil's new building
Example of pupil’s new building

 

Pupil's imagined building
Pupil’s imagined building

 

Imagined building made up of parts of Cambridge buildings
Imagined building made up of parts of Cambridge buildings

 


Part Three:
Inspired by Claire Louise Mather’s Responding to Place to Trace, Transfer and Transform

Pupil traces over his collage in acetate with a permanent marker
Pupil traces over his collage in acetate with a permanent marker

 

Close up - working out the details
Close up – working out the details

 

Pupil traces over his collage in acetate with a permanent marker
Pupil traces over his collage in acetate with a permanent marker

 

Pupils hold up their traced images
Pupils hold up their traced images

 

Invented building traced onto acetate
Invented building traced onto acetate

 


Part Four:
Creating the Final Piece – Using Textured Papers (from the Morning Session) to Create a New Building

Artwork including collage of re-constructed buildings and textured paper from the morning's session
Artwork including collage of re-constructed buildings and textured paper from the morning’s session

 

Pupil uses textured paper created in the morning session to make a back ground for their new building
Pupil uses textured paper created in the morning session to make a back ground for their new building

 

Pupil collages behind the acetate with textured paper
Pupil collages behind the acetate with textured paper

 

Sticking textured paper behind the acetate
Sticking textured paper behind the acetate

 

Pupil's finished, collaged work ready to be cut out
Pupil’s finished, collaged work ready to be cut out

 

Pupil and his collaged work
Pupil and his collaged work

 

Finished work ready to cut out
Finished work ready to cut out

 


Finished Work – A New Cambridge Townscape

Finished building with textured background
Finished building with textured background

 

Building with collaged background made from textured paper in the morning session
Building with collaged background made from textured paper in the morning session

 

Finished building
Finished building

 

Finished building
Finished building

 

Finished work
Finished work

 

Townscape by pupils of Ridgefield Primary School with help from Jo Allen and Rachael Causer
Townscape by pupils of Ridgefield Primary School with help from Jo Allen and Rachael Causer

 

“When we were asked by Accessart to run a workshop inspired by one of the 40 artist educator posts, we were spoilt for choice. We both loved Claire’s project and were intrigued by the many possibilities it suggested. For us as freelance practitioners, Accessart is an incredibly rich and diverse resource with so many inspirational ideas all in one place. We were able to take elements of Claire’s wonderful resource and build on it to create a project we were really proud of.” Jo Allen and Rachael Causer

Letter from pupil at Ridgefield Primary School

 

Letter from pupil at Ridgefield primary school

 

Many thanks to Loren Mccarthy for beautifully capturing the day.

Funded by The Arts Council of England

image_pdfimage_print