Authored by artist Pip Lewis
The focus of the project in Ysgol Gynradd Aberteifi was the biodiversity to be found in an Oak tree.
We chose the Oak tree as the over-arching subject as it acts as a miniature, living ecosystems and as such presents a huge range of opportunities for the ecologist and artist to explore and devise sessions for the pupils.
I facilitated four morning art workshops worked with 23 pupils in Dosbarth Blodeuwedd — dividing the class into two groups of 12, and facilitated two morning sessions in the classroom, with each group.
Group A — Birds of the Oak
In the first session the pupils made observational drawings of oak leaves I had brought in, using 2B pencils, identifying the midrib tip, shape and margins of the leaf.
The students then worked with a range of different art mediums to discover different effects including:
- White charcoal pencils drawing the oak leaves on black paper
- Black charcoal pencils on white paper
- Graphite sticks to create rubbings of the leaves
I had previously selected 12 images of birds from the RSPB website, that live and forage in the Oak and printed out A3 colour photographs for the pupils to base creating an individual artwork. At the end of the first session the pupils drew lots to find out which bird they would be focusing on and traced the outline of the bird and details of the markings onto an acetate sheet.
In the second session the pupils created layered their own artwork using an overlay process involving drawing onto acetate, drawing and collage onto a layer of paper underneath, and creating text of the birds name in English and welsh, using stencils.
Group B — Butterflies & moths of the Oak
In the second group the focus was patterns in nature, particularly referencing the patterns seen on specific butterflies and moths that live in oak trees, and we talked initially about why butterflies and moths have such colourful and patterned shapes.
In the first session the pupils made a pattern sheet , with seven of the most common patterns and shapes found on butterfly and moth’s wings. I had selected and printed 12 photographs of moths and butterfly species whose habitat is an oak tree and again we started with a photo lottery where each pupil randomly selected a number from a bag which identified a specific photo of a butterfly or moth for them to work with. A sheet of tracing paper was attached with a clip over the photograph and the pupils drew the outline of the butterfly or moth and added all the details like the veins and pattern shapes, using a sharp pencil first and then going over theses lines with a permanent black marker.
In the second session each pupil was given an A3 piece of cartridge paper, pre-prepared with a pencil grid of 48 squares to make the background .The pupils selected and added alternate patterns and colours from their original pattern sheet with colour markers. We talked about the impact of colour and half of the group worked with warm colours - reds, oranges, yellows - and the other half used cool colours - blues, greens, and purples in their background. The pupils then chose colour markers which represented their specific species to colour in and add the detail patterns and shapes and finally adding the name of the butterfly or moth in english and welsh to the final image, using letter stencils prior to the images being framed.
Mari Roberts, the class teacher, also worked with the pupils in-between the sessions to create sketchbooks exploring the range of wildlife the oak tree supports in more depth as well as the life cycle of the tree — including many other aspects of the trees biodiversity. Including habitats and species.
Alongside this Mari also worked with other Year 4 Class in the school — Dosbarth Rhiannon which has 23 pupils — to develop the project further.
Mari took inspiration from the ideas and techniques I had introduced, and re-interpreted them into a series of new observational drawings of leaves, and images exploring the colours of birds, as well as using painting and colour mixing to create the patterns found in moths and butterflies colour.
The mighty Oaks on the school grounds
