Youngsters brave downpour to get closer to nature

August 1, 2007 North Yorkshire News

Children have been braving this season's record downpours to get closer to nature as part of a joint art project run by a Richmond gallery and environmentally friendly holiday company, Natural Retreats.

The youngsters are members of a Saturday art class run by the Memento Gallery and were invited to the Natural Retreats' Aislabeck site on the outskirts of Richmond to study and draw the natural environment.

The work produced from the session, which included bark rubbing, collage, still-life and landscape sketches, has now gone on show at the Memento Gallery on Castle Hill, Richmond.

Sylvia Smith, who teaches the classes, said: "Although a lot of the preparatory work took place in the studio, it was great to be able to take the children out into the field and get them observing nature at first-hand. The Aislabeck site has a wonderful combination of the woods and meadows as well as fantastic panoramic views across the Swale Valley.

"The Children were also inspired by the holiday residences themselves and were intrigued as to how natural materials, particularly the living plant roofs, had been used to blend with the landscape," she added.

As well as the exhibition of children's art that will be held in the gallery this summer, a number of selected pieces from the gallery's collection will go on permanent display in the individual holiday residences. Theses are mainly works by local artists and depict the natural environment and dales landscapes.

Ewan Kearney, of Natural Retreats, said: "We were delighted to have the children at Aislabeck and, judging from the work they have produced, the visit was obviously a great success."