July saw the start of an exciting new phase of the Isle of Man Nature Journal as the IOMNJ map was introduced to school children and used as a stimulus to discuss our differences and a prompt for them to create their own art. It’s wonderful to see the very different interpretations they came up with when they drew the Sulby River in Ramsey. We were also lucky to have some beautiful artwork sent in by Emma Ashcroft (@manxmoods) which has also been included on the map. Both sets of artwork are featured in this week’s blog.
Emma Ashcroft (@manxmoods) has sent in these wonderful gouache paintings of Port Erin and Groudle Beach. I love the different atmospheres of the pieces.
Apparently Emma has only recently begun working on gouache so these are particularly impressive!
It’s wonderful to see more areas of the map covered with artwork and to have different versions of the same from different artists. Each item that’s included builds the teaching and learning possibilities and makes the map a more interested resource to explore, so thanks very much to Emma for sending these in. More of Emma’s artwork, which is inspired by the Manx landscape and folklore can be seen on her Instagram page.
The children in Year 5 of Marown Primary School were introduced to the Isle of Man Nature Journal map in July as part of a neurodiversity awareness teaching programme that I teach as part of my work for Neurodiverse Thinking. The map is ideal as the varied artwork from different individuals, who may be concentrating on making art of the same place, perfectly demonstrated how we all see the world differently and that’s ok. In fact, that’s what makes art so interesting! The children we so inspired that their teacher gave them time to work on their own interpretations of this photo of the Sulby River. Some of the resulting artwork is below:
These are just a sample of the artworks that were sent in but they show the range of media used and approaches that were taken. Some are more expressive and some are more detailed. Some focus on the colour and some the textures and tones. Each reflects the different brain that created them and all of them are wonderful as a result.
If you’d like to see more of the art that was sent in by Marown Primary school then take a look at the blue pins in the map over Ramsey.
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