Blog Posts

Recently, we hosted a mixed media concertina sketchbook workshop with artist and former art teacher Karen Stamper at the inspiring Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, bringing together art teachers for a day of experimentation, creativity and practical classroom inspiration. The workshop focused on building expressive sketchbook pages using layers, ...

  For centuries, every art student has learned the same rule:Oil and water do not mix.Yet today you can buy oil paints that thin with water, clean up with water and often don't require solvents at all.So what changed?Have chemists somehow broken the rules of painting?Not quite.Water-mixable oils are one of the most significant developments in ...

By Jayne StillmanCounty Inspector/Adviser for Art, Hampshire Improvement and Advisory Service (HIAS)  Introduction:  Art has always been a powerful way to tell stories, spark conversation and inspire change. In Hampshire, we’ve taken that belief and turned it into a county-wide movement, one that gives young people the tools, ...

POSCA paint markers have earned cult status with students, artists, crafters and anyone who loves bold colour that behaves beautifully. They glide, they pop, they’ll happily draw on everything from paper and wood to fabric, metal and found objects in the art room. But even the best-loved tools can have the odd wobble.   The good news? ...

  There is a moment most art teachers experience when introducing clay for the first time.The lesson has barely started and a student is already holding a sculpture with walls two inches thick saying: “Can this go in the kiln today?”Meanwhile another student has added water to their clay until it resembles soup, somebody else has ...

Layered Linocut: Colour, Process and Possibility in the Print RoomMonoprinting tends to settle into the classroom quite quickly.There’s usually less hesitation. Students get started sooner and the room has a bit more movement to it. It’s not because the process is easier, but because it changes the starting point. Instead of working ...

Layered Linocut: Colour, Process and Possibility in the Print Room  Layered linocut is bold, physical and rooted in tradition, yet it feels contemporary in the way it builds colour, texture and narrative through successive impressions. For GCSE and A-level students, it also answers a persistent challenge: how to move beyond flat, ...

Recently, we hosted a lino printing workshop with printmaker and educator Nick Morley, bringing together teachers and creatives for an afternoon of carving, printing, and learning new techniques.The session introduced participants to the fundamentals of lino printing while giving them the chance to experiment with tools and produce their own ...

Pigment powders are colour in its raw form.Before paint was packaged, before brushes standardised mark-making, colour existed loose, ground from minerals, earth and ash. Artists worked directly with it, responding to how it moved, stained and settled.That relationship with colour has never disappeared. Contemporary artists still return to pigment ...

Narrative is one of the hardest things to teach well in art. Students often have strong starting points, a feeling, an issue, an image; but struggle to sustain ideas, sequence meaning or show development clearly over time. Pages fill up, but the thinking stays fragmented.Concertina sketchbooks offer a simple structural shift that can radically ...