Exploring the amazingly magical Iceland this week on the Children’s Storytelling and Art Course, where an elf expert is consulted before routing a new road through rock piles that may be elf habitats, and trolls are everywhere in the landscape if you know where to look.
Elf Queen by Bethan
Troll by George
Trolls by Theo
Elf Ship by Iolo
Satlech by George
Ghost Mazes by George and Caius, and poltergist by Paddy.
Travelling back in time to Ancient Greece this week, the children of the Storytelling and Art course heard about the many chimeric creatures that inhabit the myths: Minotaur, Satyr, Harpy, Sphinx, and Chimera. Inspired, they created their own hybrid monsters, cutting up old magazines to produce these fantastic collages.
In their passports, participants of the Storytelling and Art from Around the World course inserted a picture of themselves as a character of their choosing complete with name, magical attributes, and planet of origin.
Using coloured acetates, windows were made to look in upon various characters created in response to folk stories. This week: Il Gatto Mammone, or The Tale of the Cats in which a girl tugs up a cauliflower revealing a large tunnel into the earth that leads her to a house of cats and adventures therein.
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Some stunning paintings made in response to two stories from Africa today on the Children’s Art and Storytelling course that I am running at Llanover Hall Arts Centre. ‘Why the Sun and Moon Live in the Sky’ – a Nigerian folktale, and ‘The Lion’s Whisker’ – an Ethiopian Folktale.
Elements by Jim age 9
African landscape by Paddy, age 9
Camouflaged Lion by Iolo, age 6
Sun by Paddy, age 9
Witch Doctor by George, age 7
Witch Doctor Dance by Jim, age 9
Elements II by Jim age 9
African Landscape By George, age 7
Preliminary Drawings:
Lion, by George; Winged Lion with Horn by Paddy, Mask by Paddy, Compound of Sun and Moon for the Water by George, Sun and Water by Iolo.
Here are some of my favourite art works by children I have been working with over the past months. They have been responding to old folk stories from many cultures.
The Lady of the Lake (Wales)
Maui’s Magic Fishing Hook (Maori)
The Fox Maiden (Korea)
Guardian Totems (Korea)
Medusa (Greece)
Gelert (Wales)
Baba Yaga (Russia)
Blodeuwedd and Twm Carnabwth (Wales)
Aztec Gods (Mexico)
The Bird with Two Heads, and Ganesha (India)
Huitzilopochtli (Mexico)
