North Mayo school unveils eye-catching artworks

THIRD and fourth class pupils in Behy National School have unveiled two wonderful art installations created under Mayo Education Centre’s Blast Education Scheme.

Under the scheme, schools get to work with a professional artist on art projects of their choice. Children in third and fourth class got to work with visual artist Bernadette Ruddy over a number of weeks to produce two beautiful, large-scale installations.

The approach used by the children was inspired by English artist David Hockney, who jigsawed smaller canvases together to make wonderful large scale artworks.

The subject for their work comes from the beautiful butterflies that visit the school yard at this time of year from the neighbouring bogland. A template, copied from the wing pattern of a butterfly, was traced on canvases, which were then painted in vivid colours. The completed canvases were then mounted side by side to produce stunning, large-scale, eye-catching installations.

“The children are rightly proud of their artwork,” explained school principal Pat Cunnane, “and we are hugely grateful to our artist, Bernadette. She is wonderfully talented and was hugely committed to this project. Nothing was too much trouble. She put much more time into the project than was allocated by Mayo Education Centre - she just wanted it to be right.”

Mayo Education Centre director Michael McKenzie and Patricia Carney, centre administrator, were at the opening of the artworks.

Michael McKenzie, a past pupil of the school, was delighted to attend the unveiling, adding that one thing hasn't changed since he attended Behy NS - the school still has hugely committed teachers like Ms. Cummins, Mrs. Mattimoe and Ms. O’Donnell who were willing to take on big projects like this for the benefit of their pupils.

Artist Bernadette Ruddy told the children she bounced up the stairs to their classroom on Wednesdays as she loved every minute of working with them. She thanked class teacher Ms. Cummins for the use of her classroom as well as the preparation and organisation of art materials each week.

The Blast Programme operated by Mayo Education Centre is not confined to the visual arts and enables children all over the county to work with artists on whatever element of the arts interests them most - drama, music, film, etc. The project was undertaken by the children of Behy National School is a good example of what can be produced when committed artists, teachers and children are given the opportunity to be creative together.