Wild Art on Wimbledon Common

This half term Children’s Art School have teamed up with the BIG DRAW to go WILD on Wimbledon Common with Artist and Forest School practitioner Philippa Snell.

I have always loved Autumn on Wimbledon Common and enjoy exploring with my two boys; making dens, soaking up the last of the Autumn sun, chasing the leaves and wallowing in the mud. It’s such a wonderful time and place to get creative outside.

From a base under the trees on Wimbledon Common children will experiment with drawing through varied activities that develop into interventions into the natural environment.

We will experiment with activities related to drawing outside and making – using forest school techniques and lots of imagination. Examples might be making line ‘drawings’ out of hazel rods that can be bent and tied with twine and then hung up from branches against the light to create a drawing in the sky effect.

We will make mud sculptures and draw using collections of leaves and twigs on the ground.

What Inspired Us

The original inspiration for this course came from land artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, Robert Smithson and Richard Long.

Land art was part of the conceptual art movement in the 1960s and 1970s. The most famous land artwork is Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty of 1970, an earthwork built out into the Great Salt Lake in the USA. Other artists made temporary interventions in the landscape; Richard Long simply walked up and down until he had made a mark in the earth.

We also looked at Tim Knowles who produced a series of drawings using drawing implements attached to the tips of tree branches, the wind’s effects on the tree, recorded on paper. Like signatures each drawing reveals the different qualities and characteristics of each tree.

Artist Philippa Snell has been inspired by the folklore traditions of Samhuin and Halloween to use natural materials and explore the idea of communicating with another world and preparing for the coming of winter.

Forest School

Forest School is an outdoor learning approach where children or young people are lead by a qualified Forest School practitioner in a woodland or natural environment that is, ideally, situated within reach of the participant’s community. Forest School is complimentary to mainstream education and takes place over a long period of time with sessions of regular frequency.

The aim of Forest School is to provide a safe, outdoor learning environment, which increases a child’s confidence, independence and self-esteem through developing a relationship with the natural world. The methods used by Forest School practitioners are process-orientated and child-centred with observation and adaptation at the centre of all planning and delivery. Activities are set up to be achievable and children are encouraged to follow their own curiosity and take appropriate risks. Practitioners are also trained to facilitate the development of Emotional literacy and cooperation skills through activities that are challenging, satisfying and, above all, FUN!

What will we do?

During the two days children will learn how to do Hapa-zome leaf printing, mud sculptures, ground pictures and working with Hazel-rods to make large, three-dimensional ‘drawings’ up in the trees.

All the activities will be outside and the course will end with an atmospheric, outdoor art installation for parents to come and experience. Children will need to wrap up warm and bring waterproofs and boots. We will have shelters to keep us warm and dry even if the weather is terrible!

The Big Draw

The 2014 Big Draw will run from 1 October to 2 November across the UK and in twenty other countries, with 280,000 people expected to join in over 1000+ events. The Big Draw offers thousands of enjoyable drawing activities, which connect people of all ages with museums, outdoor spaces, artists, designers, illustrators – and each other. These events are for those who love to draw, as well as for those who say they can’t!

This year’s Big Draw theme, It’s Our World, is a celebration of our environment – of urban and rural landscapes.