The Art Studio at Papdale Primary School

'Behind an unremarkable outside double cabin exterior (which may or may not be tidied up later - a certain level of anonymity has a practical value) lies the bright and very adequate working space in which Christopher and Matilda have already installed some examples of their own work'.

Taken from a review on the HI~Arts website written by Alistair Peebles.

Formerly the Home Start office, the artists' studio at Papdale Primary School is located around the back of the school near the kitchens.

We have frosted Christil Trumpet onto the windows facing the school and there is a disabled ramp leading to the door. Children have said that the experience of walking into our work space reminds them of Harry Potter because the look of the exterior does not indicate that the space will be as large and airy as it is - hopefully they also mean that the work going on inside the studio is a bit magical too!

The examples of our old work are no longer on display because we have had to remove them to make room for the very large canvases that we are now working on. The walls are covered with the children's Consequence drawings and the P2 'Mini Beasts', as well as our own A1 sized drawings of some of the characters we have worked up.

As I write this Christopher is priming two of the 8' x 5' canvases on the studio floor. Edrich and Bill (the janitors) are helping us and we now have a trestle table for our paint and we are getting two ladders from them tomorrow so we can start painting heads.

A corner of the studio has become our office and this means one of us can catch up on paper work while the other does the practical stuff. Throughout the year we will hold open studios to which members of the public can come and see what we are up to but these events will be organised through the school and numbers will be limited.

Related pages:

> Information about the residency

> About the artists in residence