'Nature's Cathedral' trip to Constable display at Cardiff Museum

We visited Cardiff Museum and Gallery today to take part in a workshop entitled 'Nature's Cathedral'. This workshop was based on the work of art 'Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows' by Constable which is on display at the museum until September.

Prior to the trip the class have been looking at the painting without being told anything about the piece or the artist who painted it. We then recorded responses to the painting and the feelings evoked by looking at it and then wrote a poem based on the feelings and questions that were prompted by the painting.

The workshop saw the class work with an artist to create a 3D structure out of bamboo inspired by Salisbury Cathedral which is the centre piece of the painting. The class were really impressed to hear the workshop's organizer, Stephanie reading out parts of their poem after she had listened to them on the blog.

We then worked in groups to make cubes and cuboids modeled on a plan out of bamboo, willow and masking tape. These were then combined into one large structure which took the shape of the cathedral. The pupils were then asked to make representations of nature that they could attach to the cathedral to represent the nature around it. Finally the lights were turned off and a rainbow was projected onto a screen behind the structure. The effect was quite impressive and the children loved seeing their combined efforts take the form of the painting that they had been studying.

Tomorrow we will be writing senses poems based on the piece of art after finding out more of the back story today.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the trip and would like to thank everyone at the museum for a fantastic day.