Young artists showcased their talents last month when their Surrey pre-school was transformed into an art gallery.
Children from Dolphin Pre-School in Hove, Sussex, took inspiration from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, whose theme this year is 'raw', when they set about creating their own masterpieces.
The Summer Exhibition, in its 242nd year, is the world's largest contemporary art exhibition. The Academy describes 'raw' as handmade works of art that are stark, natural, unrefined, honest, bleak and tender. The intention of the theme, the Royal Academy said, was to strip art back to the bare essentials with undisguised ingredients and materials.
Using acrylic paint and glitter on canvas, the Dolphin Pre-School children, aged two to five years, created works of art based on four sub-themes of fire, ice, land and life, chosen by the nursery to give more of a focus to the paintings and to develop the children's knowledge and understanding of the world.
'We'd been thinking about doing something special for the pre-school's 50th anniversary,' explains manager Dr John Keegan. 'A parent, Susannah Kendrick, suggested we introduce children to painting on canvas. Susannah did a similar activity with her own children and suggested we do the same for a fundraiser. Around the same time I'd been reading about the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and because it coincided with our activity, I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss.'
Parents were invited to a week-long viewing of the children's art where they could buy the works, which carried a reserve price of £5. Each painting was given a title by the artist and included a description written by Mr Keegan and Ms Kendrick to put the piece in context and give some insight into the children's personalities.
'Everyone was blown away by the exhibition,' says principal Shelia Gavan. 'Most of the pieces were bought by proud parents. Our local MP for Hove and Portslade, Mike Weatherley, who opened the exhibition, also expressed an interest in buying some of the paintings, but unfortunately they had all been sold.
'Originally we thought the exhibition would be something that only parents would be interested in, but it attracted a lot of attention, with artists coming to view the pieces and, being based in a cricket pavilion, the groundsmen, who said the children's art was amazing.'
Professional artist Chris Kettle, who came to view the children's art, says, 'I thought staging a "real art exhibition" in a pre-school was a fantastic idea and was amazed to see that the kids had been painting acrylic on canvas at such an early age. The first time I used acrylic paint was on my foundation course at art school.
'I particularly enjoyed the descriptions next to each painting, which added a shot of humour for any of the grown-up viewers. The write-ups were well informed and actually drew you to the work, just like any good curator might do in a bona fide art gallery. I'm sure I saw more "sold" stickers than in any gallery I've been to recently.'
The pre-school sold all 76 paintings and raised around £330 after costs, which will be used to replace broken toys and to buy new equipment.
GETTING STARTED
Ms Kendrick bought acrylic paints and the canvases from a discount bookstore. Staff briefed the children on the activity and at circle time, discussed with them the four sub-themes of fire, ice, land and life, what they meant and the colours and images they conjure up.
The children were then split into four groups, with each focusing on one theme and given a limited selection of paints representing their theme - reds and browns for fire and different shades of blue for ice.
Ms Kendrick advised the art specialists Ronnie Kingsbury and Emma Wells on how to get the best from the children and helped break the activity down into three stages:
- prepare the base colour of the canvases
- teach the children how to apply accent colours using different techniques with paint brushes, sponges and glue dabbers
- add the finishing touches to the paintings and create texture by, for example, using the end of a paintbrush, making squiggles and adding glitter.
Pre-school staff said they were amazed by the way the children took their time over their paintings and observed their artwork before making any additional touches.
Finally, the children named their paintings and Mrs Kendrick and Mr Keegan wrote descriptions for each painting using artistic terms.
'I gave myself a crash course in art,' says Mr Keegan. 'We spent hours researching famous works of art and specialist terms on the internet. It took longer to write the descriptions than it did for the children to complete their paintings.'
To recreate the feel of an art exhibition in a real gallery, the staff put a lot of thought into hanging the paintings. They also made posters to advertise the event. At the opening of the gallery they served drinks and nibbles to prospective parent buyers.
Ms Gavan says, 'When the children were creating their paintings, it was like magic. We have never achieved anything like this before using any other medium. We normally focus on the performing arts at the pre-school as the children show real promise, but after this we will be doing more artwork to nurture their artistic talents.'
DESCRIPTIONS OF WORKS
Artist: Jonathan Redwood
Title: Bonfire
'Clearly a pastiche of Abstract Expressionist Willem de Koonings' 1955 masterpiece "Composition", this is a stunning tour de force by a painter whose work is increasingly acclaimed and sought out by connoisseurs in the rarefied world of private contemporary art collections. Using vigorous and expressive yet deft brushstrokes to build up a richly coloured and textured display of flames and pyrotechnic detritus caught in revolutionary convection, the work compellingly draws the viewer through its brown and amber spirals into the yellow and white incandescence at the core of this blazing inferno. In doing so, the artist casts a meditative, near-hypnotic and glowing spell on the viewer.'
Artist: Maisie Brown
Title: My Brown Doggie
'When Picasso went to a show of children's art, he remarked: "When I was their age I could draw like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to learn to draw like them." He wasn't alone in this ambition, as many 20th century artists tried to draw like children: Kandinsky, Klee, Miro, Dubuffet, to name but a few, and most of them did not succeed. But with this amazing work, we have discovered an established 21st century artist who excels at Naive art.'
Artist: Isabel Sampson
Title: Splatter
'Eschewing Jackson Pollock's method of violently splashing, flinging and dripping paint at the canvas (which led to his being jeeringly called "Jack the Dripper"), our artist uses the more focused and controlled splatter technique to wonderful abstract effect. This is nothing short of a work of staggering genius from a young artist whose precocious talents were already evident some years ago.'
Artist: Lewis Bamford
Title: A Sparkling Sky
'The nimbostratus, altostratus and stratoculmulus formations visible here are echoed in the layering techniques used to create the work. Altostratus are thin, soft clouds. The thinner ones never bring any rain, but they can evolve into nimbostratus that shower us with that so-called "light rain" perfectly depicted here in the light showering of metallic glitter that has been strategically placed in three separate waves. A single red kite peeks from beneath as the bearer below reels in his string to run for cover. Typical of this renowned artist, a painting that lends thought to the moments which may follow the work, rather than the work itself.'