Bear painting at St Francis, 18-19th May 2017 :)

I spent 2 days at St Francis Church of England Primary School, meeting all the children from nursery up to Year 6 and they all painted onto their bear.

The bear has been christened Fioretti, Italian for 'Little Flowers' and also the title of a book on the life of St Francis, a friar and lover of nature.

This is such a lovely opportunity to encourage children's contribution and love of the arts. I met so many pupils who said they loved drawing and painting and that their parents were artists too.

I had keen pupils submitting their ideas for bears too, including Fred Francis, named after the big red bus in their school field.

In keeping with St Francis' love of nature, in the centre of the school is the quad, where 8 ducklings are being nurtured :)

Thinktank Bookbench Painting Sessions 6th-20th May

I have spent some long and late nights in the Think Space painting the grand design onto the book bench! I have accumulated a handful of the children's designs and rendered them into finished beasts that will assemble into a prehistoric scene.

The complete Ichthyosaur dinosaur skeleton is the central focus for this project, with JK Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was the springboard for all of the imagined beasts.