’I saw a bus with Boar Lane !’ This comment made me smile. John Atkinson Grimshaw, painted the street Boar Lane over 140 years ago and both painting and street still exist today.
His painting inspired our Arts Fortnight in the studio. His warm colours featured in our weaving and the painting of our clay slabs.

We noticed the Victorian Lamp posts, arched windows, tobacco sign and cobbled pavements. In our sketch books, we chose something from his painting that interested us and drew its outline. This simple drawing we then captured in clay on our clay slabs.

But how did we make our clay slabs?

First, we bashed the air out of the clay. Next, using the palms of our hands we rolled the clay into a sphere. After that, we used a rolling pin to roll the clay into a rectangular or square slab.

With the left over clay we bashed it, rolled it into a sphere and then rolled it out again so that we could draw our noun depicted in our sketch book.

To attach our clay onto the slab we used a glue clay called slip. This is made from water and clay. We also had to cross hatch the slab and the piece of clay we wanted to attach before adding the slip. We then used our fingers or clay tools to make sure there were no gaps between the pieces and then smoothed the sides.

We then left our clay slabs to dry. We learnt that the malleable clay that we could pinch, cut, roll and build up once dry became hard and fragile.

Thomas’ sketchbook captures in paint and different drawing media, the many warm colours and a few of the cool colours John Atkinson Grimshaw used in his painting of Boar Lane. Together we remembered that the primary colours red, yellow and blue could be mixed together to make the warm colour orange and the cool colour green. We also remembered that a touch of black made our colours darker and white made our colours lighter. By playing, we discovered that red, blue and yellow made brown.

In painting our clay slabs, we needed to remember how to make these colours.

Many of us found weaving tricky. To keep going when we were in the pit took courage and perseverance. Chloe quickly became an expert and others imitated her technique. Going under and over is easier to say that physically do with needle and yarn. Well done 2B for keeping going and successfully capturing the colours of ‘Boar Lane’ in the process.

Friday afternoon was an incredibly joyous time. So many interested adults of 2B joined in their arts celebration, watched the dance and joined in the carousel of activities. The photographs and comments hopefully give a glimpse of what we were up to.

‘Today was great. I love how everyone can get involved in what the children have been learning.’

‘Amazing practical bonding session for parents and kids.’

‘10/10 great fun and amazing artwork Ruby.’

’Really enjoyed this afternoon. It was lovely getting involved with A’Nae and working as a team. A’Nae has been very excited. I enjoyed watching her work.’

’We always enjoy Arts Fortnight. Well planned. The activities this year have been particularly enjoyable. Thank you.’

’Role model children were great!! A lovely afternoon at 2B’s Art celebrations. All of the children did ACE at their performance. The children did a wonderful job at teaching us about what they have learned about Leeds.’

’I really enjoyed your well planned afternoon. Children very happy and well informed. Was interested to see iPads being used so successfully. Lovely buildings- art room and library etc. Thanks so much.’

’Really good fun. We both enjoyed it! ❤️’

’Was lovely to see my granddaughter dancing with her classmates, and see where she spends her time, in class and in the art room. All the teachers seem really nice. What a great environment. Well done to the children in blue, very friendly and chatty.’

’Amazing performance. Fun quiz- very competitive. Very creative in the art studio.’

’Fantastic experience. Thank you very much!’

’Lovely afternoon, thanks. Really liked the quiz. Children loved having parents here.’

’Everything was great, especially the way of teaching.’

’I am really amazed seeing Mariam doing great job. I really enjoyed joining her and loved seeing all the teachers and looking around school. Thank you. Really amazing.’

’We enjoyed all the activities and sharing as a family. So happy.’