Take Heart From Great Art
Take One Picture Exhibition 10th July 2007 3pm-6pm St John's CE VA First School
One of the community gems at this year's Frome Festival was an art exhibition at St Johns primary school in association with London's National Gallery.
Pupils from all years took part in creating works of art inspired by a Rubens landscape owned by the gallery.
An Autumn landscape with a view of Het Steen in the early morning (1636) is believed to feature a self-portrait of the Flemish painter in the foreground .
The Take One Art Exhibition at St John's featured the pupils's work as part of a concerted effort to promote art at this year's festival.
Teaching staff began the project after attending a training day at the National Gallery in January.
Take One Picture is an annual scheme run by the gallery to encourage schools to use a nominated painting in their collection to launch art projects.
St John's head teacher Alan Burgess said: 'I am delighted at the way the project has drawn the school together and elicited such a wide-raging creative response from our children and staff.'
Reception created displays of minibeasts in woodland and undergrowth using a range of materials.
Year One made a replica of the horses and cart in the painting as a Design and Technology project. One day last term, every pupil in the year came to school in costumes as either rich or poor characters from the painting and were photographed in the school garden.
Year Two painted the views from the window of Het Steen, the house where Rubens lived, sketched plants and created two large collages.
Year Three took photographs of Longleat House, which was built in Rubens' lifetime, and used them to create paintings. They also created a huge collage using natural materials, a giant doll's house
modelled on Rubens' home and devised Cluedo-style games because they believed such a mysterious, dark building was an ideal setting for a murder.
Year Four wrote World War Two stories about children evacuated to Het Steen and made a film called The Mystery of Het Steen , which was filmed in costume at St John's Church, a Frome graveyard and All Hallows School, Cranmore.
Sally Keegan, a teacher at Christchurch First School, Frome, said: "The work the children have produced is inspirational and I feel motivated to go and do something with my kids."
Rubens bought Château de Steen, near Antwerp, in 1635. He completed Het Steen a year later. In 1640, he died from gout at the age of 63.
For more information about the art events held at this year's festival, look up www.fromefestival.co.uk .
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