The Self Portrait ProjectFunded by The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, 2005-6

Esmée Fairbairn Self Portrait Project

the teachers would team-teach a self portrait project to the year 5 children in their schools in weekly half day sessions from October to April

the teachers would work alongside the pupils to produce their own self portraits

local public exhibitions would be held during the summer term each school would hold a Critics’ Forum to encourage pupils to

discuss and critique the school’s exhibition a team of pupil researchers would produce a documentary DVD

about the work of the project the pupils’ DVD and the university researchers’ findings would be

used to develop teacher education resources for subsequent cohorts of pre-service student teachers.

Activity to date…

Sept 2005: Very well evaluated full day workshop in Nottingham with Doreen Hunt, artist in residence at Hempshill Hall School, and Sharon Limb, teaching assistant

Dec 2005: Interim written feedback from project schools

Ongoing support for art work from Doreen during project

Jan 2006: Pupil documentary team start work Feb/Mar 2006: Visits by Philip and Chris to each

of the 10 project schools to interview teachers, trainees and pupils

April 2006: Trainee-led dissemination session at SCITT Easter conference

April 2006: Analysis of interview data May and July 2006: Conference presentations

discussing the project work May-July 2006: Collation of final reports and

photos of pupils’ work

Next stages…

1. Analysis of findings in relation to the learning and confidence of trainees, mentors and pupils.

2. Final report to Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (Dec 2006).

3. Production of a DVD which includes: the student researchers’ findings; an interview with Doreen; the gallery of portraits.

4. Distribution of the DVD to trainees (Jan 2007).5. Decisions about any revisions to the study guide

for 2007-8.6. Writing for publication about the project and its

outcomes.

Some findings from the Documentary Team… 1

What have you learnt from the project? I learnt that every picture tells a story. I used to draw stickmen, but now I draw the detail. There is no wrong or right way of creating an

image. The process of drawing a face in stages. Focus on what you are doing, working with a wide

variety of materials. How to use sources in different ways.

Some findings from the Documentary Team… 2

Is the teaching different? If yes, how? We normally do different things each

week in art, but we worked on the same project and worked to build it up and improve it.

The teachers did not mind what we did because it was all ours.

In normal art we draw patterns, but in this art it was about creating a portrait.

Some findings from the Documentary Team… 3

Can you describe the whole project in one sentence? Really fun and enjoyable. The project was really fun and I enjoyed it all throughout the

week. It has been wonderful, especially doing the project. Really, really, really good. It was fantastic because I like art. It has been the best art lesson I have ever had. I liked the project because we could work as a team.

Comments from a mentor…

During the project children regularly discussed and gave feedback to each other on their work (and homework) on a daily basis. The children’s comments were extremely sensitive, honest and mature and individuals were encouraged by others’ views. You could almost visibly see their confidence in their own ability growing.

Working on the project every day for a whole week made it a very special experience. The children gained enormous benefit from the concentrated approach which enabled them to focus very closely on each skill taught throughout the week. This approach was certainly reflected in the results, of which we were very proud.

I am now much more confident myself with portrait painting following our day’s workshop in Nottingham which was so enjoyable.

The writing about their final pieces which were displayed alongside the paintings was particularly sensitive and revealing. (Some parents had tears in their eyes!)

Managing to get 29 children, 2 adults, 29 pieces of A1 paper and all the necessary art materials into one classroom was challenging to say the least!

Displaying the smaller portraits in glass frames, instead of the large pieces, we felt was a good decision. (The paintings were too good not to be framed!) The children were thrilled when ‘sold’ stickers appeared on their work! One child gasped, "It's like a REAL exhibition!"

However,

In 2 schools the trainees left the course so the mentor worked alone (in one school) or with the headteacher (in the other)

In 2 schools the trainees were barely involved in the project

In 3 schools the trainee and the mentor worked separately, in parallel

Collaborative teaching between trainees and mentors took place only in 3 schools

The money was not generally used to buy time to work with small groups

There was only one school in which the adults produced their own portraits alongside the children

Reasons for choosing not to role model the activity

“Because we’ve been doing it as a class I’ve not had a go at the full portrait because, to be honest, it’s all hands to the pump, isn’t it?”

“I know it was suggested that we should have done the final portrait at the same time as them but I don’t really think I could have helped them.”

“I wanted to do it …but it’s not been possible with all the things that have been going on.”

Different perspectives

I: …you are doing work alongside them and you aren’t necessarily any better than them either.

T: No, poorer most of the time. They quite like that. When I make a mistake they love it.

Trainee: It’s like they will try and correct our errors. They will say things like: “Why don’t you try …?” And one child can be separating a face into thirds and one child’s forehead was literally this big – Thomas – and then he did it on his picture but it took him about three months to see what he had done, even though people had been telling him. And then we did the evaluations of each other’s work and they are fairly critical of each other’s work – but not negatively – and I think they take their own criticisms better than our’s.

Teacher: “This is my medium term plan and I’ve tried to explain to them [the children] what I want as the end result… We started off by explaining the idea to them first of all and I got some PowerPoint pictures of some previous ones from another school. So I showed them on the whiteboard to give them an idea of what the final outcome was so that they could actually see and we talked about what the children had done and how they produced it... Yes, I thought that would give them a good idea of what sort of work they were aiming at.”

“I showed them [the pupils] all the new stuff.

I bought brand new stuff – palettes and sketchbooks – and they were quite taken with that. “

“We’ve probably spent about two hundred quid on materials to give them [the pupils] some feeling of how important it was really. So it had that impact.”

Student teacher: They had homework

every night. They couldn’t wait to get it in.

Mentor: And they got their parents involved as well. They would come in the next day and say: “This is mine. This is dad’s. This is mum’s.” So they involved lots of the family, didn’t they?

“Lots of them [the children] in the beginning were scared to make a mistake and wanted it to look pretty and on the wall. So, with chalks and crayons, we did a session of music: we put mellow music on, and stronger music, and the children responded with their sketches. And lots of girls especially don’t like to make a mess so it took them about five times before they realised that it could just be scribbles.”

“So we all sit with our groups – it’s the whole class but we each have our own group. We split our children into three groups and they watch us do a demo. I’ll do it one week and [other teacher] will do it another week and our TA just joins in, doesn’t she? And then we will sit and do it with them.”

“Because I’m dreadful – my art is dreadful, but the children… and we have music playing and their voices can’t be louder than the music, which is really low, so they have to whisper… they sit and whisper to each other. It’s not controlled but it seems very controlled… And it’s because you are sat so close to them that they will just look up to you and say: ‘Is that ok?’”

Student teacher: “Sometimes we have, like, streams of questions. It’s like: ‘Can we do this? Can we do this? Can we do this?’ And we always just say: ‘Yes, you can do anything’.”

I love the simplicity of this child’s portrait. The artist likes fishing and decided all he wanted to include was a dead shark with dripping blood. He took a very long time to mix his skin tone and worked on the darker and lighter areas of his face in considerable detail. My favourite part of the painting is the bright orange streak above his head – originally a mistake when blue paint was spilled; it resulted in a dramatic, interesting way to fill that blank space and leaves us wondering what it could represent. The choice to dress himself in a shirt and tie reflects his ambitious, hardworking personality.

…this is a very simple design, carefully planned and painted. I think the artist’s observation work is excellent, the shading and different use of colour in her face is superb and I feel she must have learnt a lot during the workshop sessions. She has a clear sense of what the word identity means to her and this relates to her nationality, hence the flags. She was a child who needed constant reassurance during her work and I am so pleased that she was as happy with the final outcome as I was!

I felt this was one of the more intriguing portraits that was produced. The artist always intended to put his head onto a character’s body and this changed from Superman to Homer Simpson over the course of the project. This child loves drawing cartons, but wasn’t so keen on ‘real life’ painting and I think this is reflected in the cartoon style of his face, with its large eyes and simple lines. The painting is busy with abstract objects being sucked into a Tardis (including him!). It reflects his personality well, he is a happy child who enjoys thinking, talking and doing well in everything that he can. The way he has put his head off centre demonstrates his lack of egocentricity and the importance of everything around him which reflects his mature approach to life.

I am so pleased with this painting because of the insecurities the artist has overcome concerning his ability in art. His first attempts to paint himself were always covered up with large black scribbles as frustration took over. However, his finished portrait is of a great quality and successful in conveying his identity. In the background he reveals the importance of football in his life (the pitch filling such a large space) and the car stuck on with PVA. He has made a good effort with the skin tone and shading on his face and has blended these colours amazingly well. The best thing is, he considers himself to be able in art now, demonstrating how successful this intensive type of project can really be.

I love the use of colour in this portrait, especially in her interpretation of the face and hair. The artist had recently enjoyed a trip to Texas and she places herself within a dry landscape. The whole composition and use of space on the canvas is simple but very effective, particularly the sun which looks fantastic above her head. Her expression is serious and intriguing; I think it really draws you into the painting. She tells me that she drew a sunset because she is a calm person and she loves all the colours there are in the sky when the sun is setting.