Claire Weetman, Visual Artist

As part of arts week at Byrchall High School in Ashton in Makerfield, Y7 and Y8 have worked with local artist Claire Weetman on the ‘Somewhere to Sit’ project. They have explored Claire’s series of pencil drawings of chairs, considering how a visual image can tell a story, express our inner emotions or tell the world about important issues. 

Through a series of exercises, students have developed their drawing skills, been given permission to create 'rubbish drawings' as part of their learning process and shown how to use negative space within their observational drawings. A collage activity gave the students inspiration to playfully place their drawings of chairs in places that tell stories. 

As the school are moving to a new building next term, Claire responded to their brief to not create a physical exhibition of work by developing an online virtual exhibition on the artsteps platform which you can visit at the link below. Do you ever feel like you’re just spinning around, not getting anywhere like the chair stuck in the microwave, or that your chair would just lift you into the sky and fly away from your cares with a flock of birds? 

Maybe you’ll find a chair in this exhibition that is somewhere for you to sit.

Somewhere to Sit is a workshop that is adaptable to students in KS2, KS3 and higher. If you'd like to book Claire to deliver a workshop in your setting, please get in touch.

https://www.artsteps.com/view/668e9bf9e43b75f7d891007b