The Pelham Willow
Pelham After-School Art Club (Autumn Term Project)
The Pelham Willow
This term at Pelham Primary Schools’ After-School Art Club we are commemorating Pelham’s willow tree before it is sadly felled to make room for much needed classrooms.
We began by documenting the tree in preparation for the project. Outside, we created quick sketches and rubbings using fine liner, charcoal, wax and pencil. We looked up into the canopy, observed the shapes of the brances, and examined the texture of the bark up close. We also took impressions from the tree’s bark, capturing its intricate details.
Blind Drawing
We collected branches, bark and leaves from the willow tree in the school grounds. Using a blind-drawing technique, we fixed a shield to our pen or pencil, which that forced us to draw by looking at the object, rather than our paper. This encouraged us to focus more on the tree’s form than on the final drawing.
Bark Impressions
At Art Club this week, we painted clay impressions of the willow’s bark. We carefully explored the textures and colors, using tiny brushes to highlight the variety in the bark’s surface.
Impression taken from the trunk of the willow
Painted impression
Looking carefully at texture
Using a limited earth palette
Deep impressions
Dappled tones
When all our pieces were finished we arranged them into a joint piece in different forms.
Layered Drawings
We layered different drawing materials, such as charcoal and pastel, to create new effects when drawing twigs, leaves and bark collected from the willow tree in the school grounds.
Mixing charcoal and pastel
Looking at twists and knots
Beautiful layering
Close study of colour
Bold lines
Careful looking
mixing media
Lovely lines
Printing Tree Motifs
This week at Pelham Schools’ Art club, we looked back at our drawings of the willow tree and selected a motif to make into a printing tile.
Creating a pattern
Repeating a motif
We carved the design into poly-block and printed onto strips of paper.
Rolling ink to create our final results
Year 1 Art Club at Pelham
“Autumn is a second spring, where every leaf becomes a flower.”
We talked about the signs of autumn and documented “autumn flowers” through drawing, rubbing, tracing, collage and layers. We also collected fallen leaves and used them to create ephemeral characters. - fleeting friends.
We began trying to capture and preserve some of the smaller, delicate creations.
Collaborative Collage
Next, we brought all our work on the willow tree together to create a group collage. Working in four groups, we combined photocopies of our drawings and clay work with magazine cuttings and mixed papers.
We experimented with textures and colors to depict tree bark and drew into the photocopies using pencil and pastel, blending our individual pieces into a collective effort.
We looked at how a piece of art could say something powerfull by cutting up texts that had been written about our much loved willow tree. We saw that there were reasons for and against the decision to cut it down. We included cuttings from the planning application and the school’s newsletter.
We also recorded our memories of the tree and added them to the mix - so many memories and thoughts. We then joined the four sections together to make one large piece in the shape of the willow tree.
Four sections created a whole - then we all took part in a discussion on how to progess.
Art that shouts
This week, we continued to developon our collaborative collage about our much loved willow tree.
We experimented with pastels, drawing into photocopies of our drawings of bark, branches and leaves.
Working colour into a twig
Smudging colours together
Layering colours onto photocopied drawings from our friends
Getting into our materials!
We worked on sections of the collage together. We explored how artists like Bob and Roberta Smith and Mark Wallinger use art to protest and make a statement, and we thought about this in relation to our project.
Experimenting with ways to show bark
Mixing cut papers, photocopied drawings and rubbings together
Various ways to show bark
Can you spot tiny pieces from the whole project here?
See how the tree is progressing and look out for the finished piece next week.
Pelham Willow Private Viewing
The children from Pelham After School Art Club invited their parents and teachers to a special private viewing of the completed project.
Together, we arranged our artwork, served snacks and shared our process with our guests.
Our sketchbooks showed the development of our ideas, and we proudly explained our work. We also printed paper bags to carry our work home, and our teachers and parents were impressed by our dedication and creativity.
We were very proud of the work we created and the way we came together as a group to commemorate our beloved willow tree.