Visitors blown away by pupils’ artwork

PRIMARY schools across the city came together to celebrate their pupils’ artistic talents at the annual East London Primary School Art Exhibition recently.

The week-long exhibition, which included drawings, 3D works, mixed media and group work, was held at the East London’s Belgravia Art Centre in Southernwood ,where the public were afforded an opportunity to view the works.

And art lovers certainly were in for quite a surprise, as the display hall was filled with beautiful, bold and bright art pieces.

Schools were required to select 30 artworks from each education phase to be displayed at the exhibition.

The works were then evaluated by judges in each phase and given double gold, gold, silver and bronze ratings. Most of the paintings and artworks done by the foundation phase (Grade 1 to 3) pupils depicted things that they liked doing, such as playing at school, riding a bicycle, swimming and eating ice-cream.

Some painted portraits of their parents and families.

The intermediate phase, which includes pupils from Grade 4 to 7, focused more on studies of natural science, the arts and culturally inspired ideas.

The most impressive pieces were from the 3D group works, where pupils really showed off their creativ

Pieces varied from little puppies made from recycled material to chandeliers and trees made from bottle caps.

Head of the foundation phase at Cambridge Primary, Cheryl Kent said she was blown away by the standard of the artwork by the pupils, and said it got better every year.

“Some schools don’t have much resources but they still participate in exhibitions and do art.

“There are very creative pieces at the exhibition and it all looks really wonderful.

“I think that it is really great that teachers still teach art and allow children to express themselves and be creative,” she said.

Anna-belle Jets, who went to view the exhibition, said she was very impressed with the artwork.

The art lover said it was good that there were still avenues where children were allowed “to contribute positively for a better future”.

At the end of the exhibition, pupils are awarded certificates of merit for their artworks.

Cambridge Primary, which was the biggest winner, expressed their excitement over the schools’ overall performance this year, as their intermediate phase bagged four double gold awards, 13 gold and 11 silver awards.