The Treehouse School commission

How many children get paid for making artwork for another school?

Well, in Room 13 we got a chance to make a beautiful piece of artwork for The Treehouse school titled ‘There’s a Lemur on the Loose’.

We the children were involved in making this collaborative piece from the beginning.

We started by meeting The Treehouse School as a group over a video call, asking questions and getting a sense of the brief. This was for a piece of artwork sharing our local wildlife to go on the wall of their new building.

We prepared for this and asked the children and Head teacher lots of questions about what they wanted. They are interested in Room 13 because they are a nature school and we are an art studio.

In discussion with Paul, one of our artists in residence, we then explored what a commission is. We thought about our local wildlife and learnt different making techniques. We started the piece with a screen print to get a base to work from. We traced and drew the pictures for this. We then decorated the piece by using ink, gouache and cutting images for collage, with Paul showing us how to cut very carefully, and stick down the images.

We designed the treehouse that we put in the artwork. These additions helped make the piece fit the brief, making it playful. We also wanted to make it colourful and fun by hiding animals in the picture.

We were inspired by lots of local wildlife in Hartcliffe and there is even a cheeky Lemur hidden in the artwork. You don’t usually see a lemur sneaking around in South Bristol but a Room 13er from years ago made it after a trip to the zoo.

The people who worked on this commission were me, Letisha Y5, Sophie Y6, Ivy Y5, Deborah Y3 and adult our artist Paul Bradley. Our studio was paid a whopping £100 for it.