Inspired! ‘The Tree’ by Year One and Two at Hauxton Primary School
In this post, Pamela Stewart shares the submission by Hauxton Primary School, Cambridgeshire for Inspire: A Celebration of Children’s Art in Response to Jacopo del Sellaio’s Cupid and Psyche by Year One and Two pupils in ‘Owl Class‘.
This post shares the pupils’ Inspire journey and all that they learned in response to looking at the Renaissance painting at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and where science and Art can meet.
‘The Tree’ by Pupils in Owl Class
Introducing Cupid and Psyche
The story was told to us.
‘Tell us again!’ we said.
Every day for a number of weeks the story was retold.
Poppy’s mum, Pippa, said that Poppy drew the story on the blackboard at home and retold it often!
Let’s study trees and plants!
Linking across the curriculum during our Science week, we decided to ask Professor John Love to carry out an investigation with us on what colour of light plants thrive better in.
We then placed the seeds into different coloured bags – clear, blue, green, red and in tin foil (no light).
It was the ones in the red and blue bag that grew best!
We learned lots of facts about trees!
With the leaves we found, we produced still life pictures using pastels.
Now for the finale and our class tree…
We had learned about the Renaissance techniques of Jacopo del Sellaio and wanted to try them out ourselves.
Using poster paints, egg and wine (we had read that the wine makes the egg smell nicer!) we produced colourful leaves.
The eggs were supplied by one of our mums, Martina!
Gilding our leaves
‘The Tree’ by Owl Class
‘I loved learning about old pictures and how they were painted,’ said Jack.
‘It was such fun and I really liked painting with egg and wine!’ said Arianna.
‘Using the gold leaf was really tricky but it made our tree look really special,’ said Emily.
‘I hope we win!’ exclaimed Owl class!
Go back to Inspire: A Celebration of Children’s Art in Response to Jacopo del Sellaio’s Cupid and Psyche
Inspire – December 2019 to March 2020, was an exhibition of art made by primary school children and celebrated creativity in Cambridgeshire schools. It championed the on-going importance of cultural learning and the visual arts for all children and young people.
Based on the National Gallery’s Take One Picture, The Fitzwilliam Museum and AccessArt teamed together to offer free Inspire 2020 CPD (Continued Professional Development for Teachers), focusing on one painting, Cupid and Psyche by Jacopo del Sellaio, as a source of ideas and inspiration.
Del Sellaio’s Cupid and Psyche was on display next to the children’s work in the Octagon Gallery.
With very special thanks to Kate Noble, Miranda Stearn, Sarah Villis, and Holly Morrison for making this project happen and Alison Ayres.
This post was contributed by Pamela Stewart with special permission from Hauxton Primary School, Cambridgeshire, edited for AccessArt by Sheila Ceccarelli.
