School-based residency: Year 7 ‘Along The Hedgerow’

In this residency Sara worked with Year 7 pupils in their school environment to create long collaborative ‘hedgerow’ scroll-style paintings based on drawings and sketches created on a walk outside responding to the local environment. The collaborative nature of the resulting paintings ensured mutual dialogue, support and co-operation throughout the group.

Children were initially introduced to Sara’s own paintings and artwork focussing on her use of colour, mark-making, layering and the ways she exploits the liquidity and transparency of paint. Previous site research revealed that the school boundary included a wonderful hedgerow, which during February comprised a tangled skeletal structure of branches and brambles, intertwined with evergreen leaves, berries and organic debris, perfect subject-matter for exploring a layered approach to painting. The theme also encouraged the children to visually investigate their taken-for-granted environment.

We started by using gathered hedgerow foliage to explore ‘network drawings’ in preparation for sketching outside, helping children to make sense of complex visual sources. We took a walk outside: children worked in a row along a hedge to make close-up drawn studies using techniques practiced in the classroom: they formed a ‘HEDGE-ROW’!

Back in the studio, the children formed into rows to use Indian ink and sticks, water and oil-based paints to create densely layered hedgerows based on their sketches.

This workshop draws directly on Sara’s own practice as an artist. The workshop was organised by SPAEDA and shared as an online resource nationwide by AccessArt.