Junior School creates art for Ely Science Festival

The art council was given the task of creating two site specific banners, to be hung in Ely Cathedral for the festival of science. They were to depict the theme ‘Space’. The ideas of galaxy, darkness, stars, depth, light, shadow, the moon were discussed and experimented with. Once the final designs were decided on the creative fun began in the St Mary’s Junior School art studio. The girls got to discover first hand how an artist's vision changes and evolves throughout the process, using different mediums, experimenting with a range of techniques, often devising new ways to manipulate materials. The first canvas was dyed using an Ombré technique, suspended in a vat of Prussian blue and black noir dye, left overnight and repeated from the opposite end using marine turquoise. The colours blended, from dark to light, meeting to create a stunning effect, simulating the hue of the earth disappearing into space. The girls hand drew hundreds of stars and, using an artist sponge, the moon. For the second banner they decided on a galaxy. The fabric was dampened with water and placed on a tray of carefully placed powder dye, ranging from deep blue to scarlet red. Once saturated the fabric was then dipped into a bath of Prussian blue dye, removed and left to dry. It was then stretched and sprayed with a mist of water and bleach. Strong vibrant powder dye was then dabbed and sponged onto certain areas, white paint flicked and dropped to create stars, salt used to dapple and distort. The end result was a stunning galaxy, a rich display of colour and texture. The art council did an incredible job and created two spectacular textile banners for the exhibition at Ely Cathedral Science Festival, The Sky’s the Limit, open to the public 18 May-9 June.