The Big Draw took place in Wickham for the 2nd time! This time events were held in both St. Nicholas’s Church and Chesapeake Mill.
The resident artist at Chesapeake, Martin Piercy, organised art competitions for adults and children, also a number of demonstrations and interactive meetings with artists. Martin received a number of adult entries but a whole class from Bitterne Manor Primary School put their pictures in! The class were each given a character then told to find them a suitable home in Wickham, where they had come for that purpose. After choosing a house and seeing the competition on a poster they returned to school and painted a picture of the home, and some very fine pictures too!
At the Church, and for the Brownies at the Scout Hut, we had the long rolls of black poster paper which pastels, chalks and crayons could be used on, plus this year we had small cards and inks which were used to apply a thumb print (or more). These thumb prints were then made into a variety of things from mice to monsters, flowers to fairies! The rolls of paper had an incredible range of pictures drawn on them by Brownies, families, individuals of all ages, scouts, Beavers, groups and schools – including the boarders at Rookesbury Park. Also a group of 30 children, with their art teacher Kirsty, from most of the classes at Wickham Primary School.
I owe a huge debt of thanks to all the traders who put up the posters, PPS Softwoods who kindly donated the timber for the frames to put up in the Church, Malcolm and Neale for putting the framing up and attaching the drawings – all of which can be seen on display until after this Christmas. My thanks also goes to Martin Piercy and his artist wife, Elina, both of whom took turns to give me time out from ‘manning’ the Big Draw in the Church, as did Yvette Lester. Elina and Martin also helped with the Brownies and the Scouts and Beavers and Yvette with the Wickham Primary School.
Elina was so impressed with the artistic response from the children of Wickham she proposes to run a workshop before Christmas to prepare a poster and Christmas cards. There will be a small charge to cover the art materials.
If you are interested please contact Elina via Martin at:
The Mill Studio/Gallery Bridge Street Wickham Hampshire PO17 5JH
Email: martinpiercy(at)lycos.co.uk
Patricia Fray
