This project came about as a result of a request from the organiser of the Ashburton Festival for some student art to decorate the street for the Festival. It was decided that this art would be in the form of panels on Tyvek which would wrap around guards on the street trees. There would be twenty panels (one per class), each approximately 1.2 by 1 metre.

Each class was asked to submit design suggestions for their panel. In some cases these were whole pictures while others just submitted elements for possible inclusion. Some classes decided on a subject such as The Sea, Having Fun at School, etc while others submitted a wide range of ideas. Having a daughter who is a Fine Arts graduate is a definite advantage at times like this and we spent several evenings sorting through the students' ideas. We then sketched a homogenous design for each class which incorporated as many different students' ideas as possible.

• The Tyvek was cut to size and then some students who had not had their ideas selected for the design were asked to paint the background (usually sky and grass).
• They used sponges and large brushes and diluted Vipond Paint.
• The principal 'artists' were then invited to sketch their element on to the dry backgrounds. The younger students in particular often needed assistance with the resizing of their elements - roughed in shapes and guidelines were sufficient.
• The painting was then undertaken using undiluted Vipond.
• In most cases the principal artists painted their own elements then other artists added the extras.
• Teams of older students often came in at lunchtimes to work on their panel and thoroughly enjoyed adding extra elements as the painting took shape.
• Finally after three frantic weeks, the useful art graduate daughter cut a stencil of the school logo, stencilled it on to each panel and lettered the school and class name in place.

The Ashburton Festival organiser taped the panels in place around the tree guards and they graced the street for the week before the Festival. The school fair provided another opportunity to display our treasures. They festooned the school's internal fences to the students' and parents' delight.

This was a great activity, many students were involved from each class, they all loved working on their panels and sharing the colourful results with the school community.

Copyright 2007 Zart Art & Zart Education Service