Sarah J Featherstone

Completion of another Creative Schools project in a primary school at St. Gabriel and St Raphael R.C. Primary School, Tonypandy. Working with fellow artist Angharad Evans, the aim was to reconnect the children with the natural environment, while enhancing literacy skills, and to create a sensory portal in a small allocated space in the school yard that would be used for story telling.

Four stories were chosen, acted out and used as inspiration for artwork: The Rainbow Snake from Australia, The Kingdom Under the Sea from Japan, The Lady of the Lake, and Picton and the Magic Staff, based on stories from Wales. The children also created a story from their experiences on trips we arranged to Barry Sidings and the Bushcraft centre in Merthyr.

Angharad showed the children how to weave the willow into a den, and I helped them to print flags and banners to represent aspects of the four stories and the four elements: earth, air, fire and water.