Playground gets a make-over with Banksy style portraits

Year 6 pupils from St Peter’s Primary school, in Cowfold, and Year 9 pupils from Christ’s Hospital School worked together in a five week long project to produce portraits in the style of British street artist Banksy.

The eight large pieces of art have been put on permanent display in the St Peter’s Primary School playground.

Giles Kolter, Headteacher of St Peter’s, said he was grateful that his students were invited to work with pupils at Christ’s Hospital School.

He said: “It was just wonderful that ten of our Year 6 pupils were fortunate enough to be invited to Christ’s Hospital to undertake the art project. “

“The work they produced was amazing and will enhance our outdoor environment no end.

“It was such a lovely gesture from Mr Deller, head of art and Christ’s Hospital, and his colleague and art teacher Amelia Hart, and all involved at Christ’s Hospital.

“Our children were exposed to resources and teaching that primary schools just can’t offer and they benefited by developing their own art techniques, confidence with the subject and creativity.

“There was also a great element of teamwork as the children both co-operated brilliantly amongst themselves and benefitted from working with Year 9 Christ’s Hospital students.”

Siana Giles, Year 9 pupil from Christ’s Hospital, said: “I enjoyed this experience because it helped me build up my teamwork skills, and it was also very interesting learning about street artists, in this case ‘Banksy’.”

Reneeta Aghayere, Year 9 pupil from Christ’s Hospital, said: “My best experience during this activity was interacting with the Year 6 pupils from St Peter’s and to help them make a painting for their school.

“It was also great to learn about such an individual painter as ‘Banksy’.”

Banksy is an internationally acclaimed artist who is known for his distinctive stencilling technique.

The 20 students created the artwork by taking photographs of pupils from St Peter’s and using Photoshop to simplify them to create the ‘Banksy’ style portraits.

The simplified images were enlarged and painted before being attached to large wooden boards.

The official unveiling took place at St Peter’s School playground last Tuesday (January 28).”