Friday 7 March 2008

Budding Bonnards


No school for French kids on Wednesdays, including here in Brittany. A good time was had in the afternoon when we held the first of our regular art classes for children.
We've already run workshops in 'arts plastiques' for French schools, with children between two and twelve years of age. In my
experience- and as some friends with children here tell me- the artwork in 'ecole' generally shows a joyless lack of individuality or creative expression. Work is small, neat and tidy- often a case of colouring in a ready-printed image. At one Ecole Primaire, where we produced big colourful artworks on North American Indians, they hadn't had the paints out of the cupboard for two years!
We're trying, then, to choose projects that mightn't be covered in schools, or that aren't possible at home.

Our first was Printmaking, which involved a little bit of "waiting to take my turn " for the inked-up plates and the rollers, but the results were well worth it!
Well done everybody- and special thanks to our admirable assistant, Evelin.
Prints by Lawrence, Matthieu, Beth, Henry, Thibault, and Christopher.

2 comments:

Jacqui said...

Came across your blog via James Hobbs blog, attracted by the title as my parents live in Brittany.

I am so glad I dropped by, your work is interesting and so full of life.

My favourite photo on the blog, so far, has to be the one of the sketchbooks, something I know I should do but never seem to do.

I am amazed that in France of all places, art has become redundant, hopefully, your arrival has kindled an interest somewhere in some child soul.

Caroline said...

Thanks for that, Jaqui, it's lovely to get some feedback- I'll be doing another blog on sketchbooks soon, so watch this space!
As in their cuisine, the French have 'rested on their laurels' a bit, Artwise!