I wanted the year 6 students to create a mixed media work using textiles as the starting point. I also
wanted them to experience the challenge of painting on very textured surfaces.

The inspiration for these works came from those of Rebecca Cool and Mirka Mora.

Students looked at original works and photos of these artists’ works and talked about the style. They
identified the way in which Rebecca Cool carefully selected vintage fabrics, placed them first and then
built the scenes around them. The naive styling of the faces was evident with both artists.

Students carefully selected fabrics and overlaid them to create the background. These were glued onto
cartridge paper with PVA.

They spent some time drawing faces and figures with an added touch of whimsy. The finished figure was then
drawn onto the fabric with pencil and then black marker. Colours were carefully selected, mixed and the
figure painted. The painting was a real challenge, particularly for those students with heavily
textured sections of fabric. They then outlined it in either black marker or black paint to complete.

Level 4

Patterson Lakes Primary School