A DAY DEVOTED TO ART

DYNAMIC DRAWING WORKSHOP AT NEWLYN SCHOOL
LED BY ARTISTS  DENZIL FORRESTER & PHILLIPA CLAYDEN

Featured in the exhibition Captured Beauty at Newlyn Art Gallery, artist Denzil Forrester, and his partner Phillippa Clayden, led a dynamic drawing workshop with 60 pupils from Newlyn School.

“It was an incredible opportunity for the children to meet actual artists, and an artist who has particular skills, in the way he paints and for him to share that with the children,” said Isabel Stephens, head teacher at Newlyn School.

The pupils visited Newlyn Art Gallery in the morning to see Denzil’s painting in the exhibition and ask him questions about his work. In the afternoon, Denzil and Phillippa led a dynamic drawing workshop in the school hall for all 60 pupils aged 9-11 years, where they were encouraged to create rapid, quick sketches and forget the rules of drawing.

“It was so nice to do this sort of thing again. I used to teach in London for 30 years, and when I first started painting, I worked in play centres with young people. It’s good for them to get a feel for drawing, especially as the arts have been cut from the curriculum. It’s just as important as the academic stuff, it’s another language,” said Denzil.

Denzil was joined by his partner and artist Phillippa Clayden, the founder of ‘Young Visions’, a unique teaching method that she has used in a variety of settings over the past thirty years.

“This was a long session for children of that age, but they did it. They broke through their blocks and had successes, they learnt that sometimes it’s OK to break simple rules, a good life lesson,” added Phillippa.

“Art is absolutely key in children’s education. What they learn from it is huge in terms of understanding themselves, understanding emotions, assessing situations, and seeing what art shows us. It develops their oracy skills because they talk about art in new ways. Their self-confidence grows hugely. For some of the children who didn’t think they could ‘do art’ they were amazed at what they achieved with Denzil and Phillippa,” added Isabel