By Laura McKendry

In this post, Laura McKendry shares her journey as an artist educator into the Art and Health space. She tells us how she began to realise the emotional and physical impact that art can have on those struggling with mental or physical health, or who exist in vulnerable spaces, as a tool to share deeply personal experiences that otherwise lie beyond words.

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AccessArt is a UK Charity and we believe everyone has the right to be creative. AccessArt provides inspiration to help us all reach our creative potential.

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AccessArt treehouse

AccessArt Wellbeing Resources

Which Artists: Merlin Evans

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let me inspire you by emma burleigh

Globe paintings

introduction to watercolour

See all send resources

What We Like About This Resource…

“I really like how this playful resource helps us to make a creative response inspired by a stimulus, ensuring that the stimulus is only an entry point into an outcome that will look totally different. Exploring the themes of colour, texture and composition through the lens of different artists also helps us see how we can interpret (and re-interpret) colours and materials in a meaningful way. Viewfinders and collage are also great tools for those who experience ‘fear of the white page’ and will allow learners to make conscious creative decisions as they go.” – Tobi, AccessArt

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Adapting AccessArt: Colour and Composition

Cut Paper Collage Still Life

Cooking with collage

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Making Physical or Digital Layered Portraits

Pathway: Exploring Identity

Quentin Blake’s Drawings as Inspiration: Exaggerating to communicate

Session Recording: Creating School Exhibitions & Displays

Finger Palette Portraits

elastic band sketchbook

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Other Resources by Joe Gamble

Adapting AccessArt: Colour and Composition

Thoughtful Mark making

What We Like About This Resource….

This project combines art and science in innovative and creative ways. It engages children with simple and more complex sewing skills, both hand and machine. The fact that a local artist collaborated on this project, bringing her own set of skills and experience is so valuable for any extended art project, and the children were able to connect with the sensitivity of the subject matter and to empathise with it’s message.

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Autumn Floor Textiles

Cloth, Paint, Print: Inspired by Natural Objects

Making Painted & Sewn Landscapes

which artists: merlin evans

What We Love About This Resource…

So often, we hear talk of the distinction between science and art, and no more so when teenagers proceed through their education and they are encouraged to choose one route or another. In reality, creative thinking helps scientific understanding and a scientific approach can inform and inspire art.

It’s so refreshing to read and see Merlin’s experience and understand how she works between these two areas – in her words “mixing subjects, and seeing how they work and intersect is where inventions take place!“

We also love the way her work embraces the felt world of being human, as well as the known world. We’re sure many young people will find Merlin’s work of interest and reassuring when they are pressured to choose “art or science“. 

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Drawing for Learning

Drawing as a Way of Understanding

Drawing as a Way of Understanding

What We Like About This Resource….

“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

See the Resource Used in Schools…

What We Like About This Resource….

“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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Pathway: Playful Making

Featured in the ‘Playful Making’ pathway

Talking Points: Introduction to sculpture

Clay Art Medals

Talking Points: Nnena Kalu

Talking Points: Linda BEll

What We Like About This Resource….

“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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Pathway: Music and art

This is featured in the ‘Music and Art’ pathway

Talking Points: Linda BEll

Talking Points: Nnena Kalu

talking points: wassily Kandinsky

drawing source material: orchestras

A Cheerful Orchestra

What We Like About This Resource….

“You can get a real sense of the environment in this post and how this could provide so much inspiration for creative projects. We are aware there the challenges to exploring the outdoors when many schools are in towns and cities. A way around this could be to have a regular collection of natural objects within the classroom and using them as a stimulus to respond creatively in sketchbooks or in extended projects” – Andrea, AccessArt

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Woodland Exploration

A Passion for Woodworking

Visual Arts PLanning: Tees, Forest and Landscapes

By Jo Blaker

Sketchbooks are powerful tools. Enjoy these three videos in which Jo Blaker shares why sketchbooks have secret powers.

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

Sketchbook Powers Number 1 & 2

Secret powers numbers 1 and 2: Jo describes how sketchbooks can be a door into a hidden world, and a place to explore what you feel like as a person.

Sketchbook Power Number 3

Secret power number 2: Sketchbooks can be a weapon; a weapon you can use to fight boredom, ease anxiety, and find gratitude.

Sketchbook Power Number 4

Secret power numbers 4: Sketchbooks can be a laboratory – a safe place to experiment, test and discover.