Amy Gear, Lead Artist on the Start Bonhoga Education Programme, has been visiting the five participating Shetland schools throughout November. Here she tells us how the project is taking shape.

Every school had the same task to do – they each had to go for a walk in and/or around the school, take their sketchbooks and record sights, textures, the elements, and landmarks unique to each of their landscapes.

The students and their teachers have produced a brilliant, exciting and unexpected range of works so far. Below you see only a fraction of the work produced by the young artists. First up – there’s 300 sketchbooks filled with hundreds of drawings, here’s a sneak peak of a few.

Since every school reacts differently to the original brief, I work with each teacher to create a custom task for each class. In each school we made a giant drawing using exploratory drawing techniques, inspired by the work of Amanda Welch.

Amanda is an artist who has an exhibition in the Bressay lighthouse in May and June 2018 and her practice is one of the influences for our schools’ work this year.

See Amanda’s work here.

Whalsay, Aith, Brae, Fetlar and Sandwick are moving onto the next stage of the project now that the exploratory sketchbooks are complete. It’s time for large scale drawings, sculptures and installation pieces to take shape… Watch this space as we get ready for our big exhibition. This year, we are exhibiting in the dynamic space that is the auditorium in Mareel in May.

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