Art Gifted and Talented Trip

Today, we were invited to a Painting Masterclass with a local artist at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. We started the day examining the amazing portrait collection before setting out on our painting discovery. Before we could paint, we learned a range of new drawing skills such as: drawing with our right hand a one minute portrait; drawing with our opposite hand for the same duration; drawing without looking at the piece and continuous line drawing, which produced some very interesting results. From this, we explored the historic work in this glorious building. In one of the exhibitions, we looked at some very famous Pop Art, where we found a giant model of King Kong.

In the afternoon, the artist guided us through the sketching of our initial painting. In front of us, we had two life models, who kindly sat for a very long time, while we sketched their features. Most of us sketched one of the models while a brave girl sketched both. We were taught how to make that tricky skin colour using: blues, reds, yellows, browns and white (black was banned). Painting the portraits, we learned how to mix paints on a palette and use marks to pick out the details. The models’ noses were particularly difficult, so the artist talked to us about perspective. This really changed the way we looked at our work.

When we finished the portrait, we used the paint freely to create the background. The more marks we made, the better it looked. The tips on perspective really helped us to situate the models in the room and made the paintings POP. Upon the completion of the paintings we had the chance to talk to an artist in residence, who happened to be creating an interactive exhibition for children. He drew around one of the children and within 30 seconds, he had transformed his outline to that of a monkey. He invited us all to his exhibition in the summer holidays at the gallery. Karen Jones, the lady that invited us, was so impressed with how well we represented Redhill and the quality of our work, that she said we were welcome back any time.

Did you know that every Saturday you can go to the art gallery for a brilliant art club for children aged 4 – 13? Click on the link below for more information.

Young artists