Squishy, ephemeral, handmade undersea land.

Fishy, sucky, colourful, dart like, beautiful, muscular koi fish.

Glittering, surreal, engaging, looking for hidden things, sliding on the floor surrounded by art and being statues.

Once again, a lovely afternoon at the local gallery...

This term we have chosen to study various artists who create their work in or using the environment.

Today we examined the wonderful work of Andy Goldsworthy, the British artist who is one of the most recognised figures in the contemporary 'land art' movement.

A bunch of great families came to the farm and of course the day started of with building a fire and jumping on the trampolines...

We began our 'study' by learning a bit about Andy Goldsworthy (he flunked out at school and credits his greatest influence as being his part time farm work as a youth) and the process he goes through to create his works.

Then it was time to get cracking at the creating...kids and parents scattered to all parts of the farm to collect seeds, leaves, bark, flowers,twigs...

Sketching and planning was done, plans were changed, collaborations were born...

Sites were chosen according to visual contrast, ease of access and shelter from the breeze. Everyone was busy looking, touching, building, scrutinising, discussing and thinking. There was a great, productive energy in the air. The mums got involved as well, helping their kids and even making works of their own!

We ended with a roaming exhibition during which each artist or collaborative team introduced their work, announced its title and spoke a bit about their experience of creating it. We realised that this kind of art lends itself to many great life lessons. Impermanence, struggle, patience and persistence being a few of the qualities that we discussed.

Create and let go!