Last summer, I received an email out of the blue from a lovely woman named Crystal asking me if I would like to take a primary-school-full of children out on drawing expeditions. Crystal is the chair of the parent’s association at a coastal, rural primary school here in the Scottish Borders called Coldingham (such a lovely little village!). They are raising money for their school library and were planning a pupil-led art gallery as a fundraiser.  Everything about the project appealed to me.  I am passionate about drawing with kids, passionate about the power of drawing outdoors, in noticing nature, AND I volunteer in my own kids’ school library.

I said no.

The timing was wrong – it seemed that it would coincide with Calendar Launch and back-to-school for Piglet and starting nursery for Trix, so I decided it was too much to take on (Coldingham is about an hour’s drive from here).  But I asked Crystal to keep in touch and to let me know if I could help in any other way. Time passed and then I got another email from Crystal letting me know that she had been awarded funding for the project (from the wonderful Hugo Burge Foundation) AND it would now be in the new year/spring. I was out of reasons to say no! That’s when the imposter syndrome kicked in with an enormous welly kick. Sure, I love drawing outside with kids but MY OWN kids, two max at a time.  Coldingham Primary School has 66 children aged from 2 – 12.  I had cold sweats and sleepless nights at the prospect, until I started properly planning and then I got really excited about the whole thing.

The concept was that the kids, in groups of no more than 12, would take me to a location in the village and we would draw there together. We would look for signs of spring, observe the things around us, and create nature journals. The focus would be on noticing, recording and responding while exploring new materials. We would then turn these drawings into pieces that could be used for the planned exhibition.  

And that is more or less what happened! With the help of some lovely teaching staff, and with the hindrance of the wind, we visited several different locations (two woodlands, the Priory garden, the school garden) and got drawing.  We hunted for textures and recorded them using kneadable erasers and ink pads (messier than I anticipated and the ink took several days to come off hands, but the kids were really engaged); we drew the wind, drew flowers and plants, used watercolour crayons and marker pens.  We drew incredibly noisy rooks and nests, yellow daffodils, ferns, primroses, wild leeks. We used leaves as paintbrushes to turn the watercolour crayons into paints. Some children used sticks to make marks.   At some point in every session, a quiet descended and I found myself outdoors with a group of children, all drawing, and it was the most peaceful thing.  Below you can find my sketchbook pages from the excursions (finished back in the studio: I didn’t have much of a chance to draw!) and a few photos of the locations (and read on for the next part of the project).