Welcome to Le Theatre de Renoir! This wonderful giant puppet theatre was created last week at Samuel Lucas JMI school in Hitchin. Every year, the National Gallery in London choose one painting for schools to reinterpret. The best work will be exhibited at the gallery in a special exhibition called Take One Picture. 
This year the painting is Renoir’s The Umbrellas, which I used in the very first Katie story, Katie’s Picture Show. Samuel Lucas school in Hitchin have decided to take part, and I was lucky enough to be their artist-in-resisdence. Complete with a proscenium arch and scenerey (which they painted themselves) the theatre was created by year 5 and 6 pupils. They also wrote a play, based on the fact that the Umbrellas was partly repainted about five years after if was first started. To involve more children the actors mimed with masks (to look like giant puppets) and narrators sat either side of the stage. The teachers worked really hard rehearsing the children, while the glorious costumes were created in just a few days by a brilliant local artist Trina Bharwaney.
For a whole school project I wanted to create a stained glass window, using transparancy to symbolise rain. I had a few technical problems with paint not sticking to acetate, and in the end used oil pastels. Over 200 children contributed to the drawing. The result was beautiful, allowing glimpses of trees and children playing through the sketchy rainy drawings on the window, which continually change as the sun moves through the day.
Younger children also wrote and illustrated stories and poems, and other artists also came in and created other wonderful works of art: sculptures and gigantic quilts amongst them.
To achieve all this in just five days was incredibly hard work, but also great fun. It was lovely for me to spend a bit longer in a school and really get to know the children and the staff. Samuel Lucas is a rare school, with vision, imagination and lovely people. Everyone made me feel incredibly welcome and all the children threw themselves into their collaborative tasks with enthusiasm, humour and determination. I hope they are selected; they deserve to be. For me, it was a fantastic experience and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work on such ambitious and exciting things with such lovely and talented people. Samuel Lucas JMI showed just what can be done with a bit of imagination!
Leave a Reply