We start the morning with rhythm games and set up percussion sections - first working with making sounds with our mouths then producing those sounds on our instruments. Stu explains how we will work these into notation as the children compose their blues pieces.
clapping rhythms
The children then sat down to writing their own rhythm section for percussion using graph paper marked up with the different elements of a drumkit. They worked to 4 beats split in to 16, using fractions to create simple rhythms, cross rhythms, complex rhythms and syncopation. The marked up graph papers look a little like the graph papers used to create patterns for Fair Isle knitting…
After lunch I introduced the children to Anna Atkins (1799–1871) and her pioneering use of cyanotypes to record botanicals and seaweed. We are foraging on the shore tomorrow, but to have a practice we chose items to set up for sunprints - some were plants foraged from outside, some used the Matisse-inspired cutouts I’d brought and one used a pair of scissors.
While the cyanotypes were developing in the sun, we worked on some watercolour technique with the colour blue.
Some catching up with friends over kitchen tables, and a full team dinner at Kenaby, cooked by Jess.
