Recently I accompanied a year 3 class, from St Thomas More School in Letchworth Garden City, to the National Gallery. This has become an annual event and each visit is followed up with recreating a painting from the collection of the gallery. It’s always such fun to see the awe-struck children in the gallery and then compare that with the wild abandon of working with them on a vast scale and with unfamilar paints. Here we’ve used emulsion paint which is a bit more subtle than acrylic and dries matte of course, which I rather like. It’s also very inexpensive (especially as most of the paint was donated by parents with near-to-empty tins to dispose of). The children worked in small groups of around 6 for 20 minutes or so, each new group adding layers and details.
The painting chosen this year was, of course The Waterlily Pond by Monet. And it coincided perfectly with the next Katie book, which is Katie and the Waterlily Pond, due out in August. I read a set of proofs to some of the children – a sort of sneak preview – on the bus to the gallery, so I was very pleased that this painting was chosen by them.
I think they did incredibly well and the photo doesn’t do it justice. The painting positively glows on the wall of the classroom!
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