Resource for Elisabeth Frink and Graham Sutherland, Willow Brook Primary School

Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930–1993) Long-Eared Owl Lammergeier two prints from the Birds of Prey portfolio 1974 etching and aquatints

Lammergeier shows a type of bearded vulture that lives in remote mountain areas across southern Europe, Africa and India, and is a species threatened with extinction. This huge bird has a wingspan of up to 3 metres.

About the artist

Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink (14 November 1930 – 18 April 1993) was an English sculptor and printmaker. She was born in Suffolk, and studied art in Guildford and .

While she was a student, the Gallery bought one of her sculptures and this was the start of her successful career.

Themes in her early drawings include wounded birds and falling men.

Birds of prey were one of Elisabeth Frink’s favourite subjects in her art.

As a child, living in the countryside, she remembered watching bomber planes flying overhead, while her father was abroad fighting in the Second World War. As an adult, she was interested in exploring different personalities of birds of prey. Their fierceness reminded her of how scared she had felt as a child.

She was part of a postwar group of British sculptors, dubbed the Geometry of Fear school, that included , , and .

Frink’s subject matter included men, birds, dogs, horses and religious motifs, but very seldom any female forms.

She lived for a time in the mountains of the south of France, before returning to live in . She had many exhibitions around the world and made sculptures for St Paul’s Cathedral, London, and Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire.

In 1982, the Queen awarded Frink the special honour of a damehood, and one year before she died, she was awarded the ‘Companion of Honour’, in recognition for her work as an artist.

Frink was one of five 'Women of Achievement' selected for a set of British stamps issued in August 1996.

Her Times obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in human form".

Links

Frink at Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dame-elisabeth-frink-1124

Listen to Elizabeth Frink discussing her work - a British Library recording. https://sounds.bl.uk/Arts-literature-and-performance/ICA-talks/024M-C0095X0164XX-0100V0

ART ACTIVITY

Make an owl mask Reception upwards After looking at the owl prints, try this art activity.

Materials: paper plate scissors felt tip pens or paints scraps of craft materials, eg feathers to decorate paper cup cake cases (optional) glue

Draw eyes and cut out holes Carefully trim a shallow ‘V’ from above the middle of each eye to the centre cut it out in one piece. Save the trimmed paper (this will be your beak). Cut away the same amount below the eyes, leaving the serrated paper plate edge at each side. Paper cup cake cases can be attached around the eyes. The beak is made by sticking the paper plate trimmed from above the eyes. You can paint it first, then stick it under the eye holes. Decorate the mask.

Once mask is dry, it can be attached to the face with elastic or held on a stick, or simply held.

Explore moving like an owl. Try moving as quietly as an owl.

Make a monoprint Monoprints (transfer prints) are a simple form of printmaking that can be made using non-toxic paints and without a printing press.

This simple activity allows students to be spontaneous in their markmaking, and provides an introduction to using processes.

Materials: Ink roller Water based printing ink A sheet of A4 plastic or Perspex thin paper, such as newsprint objects for mark making

1. Use a roller to evenly roll out ink on the surface of the sheet

2. Place a piece of thin paper over the plastic sheet

3. Use the rounded end of a pencil and other blunt tools to draw onto the paper

4. Carefully lift the paper to reveal the drawing on the reverse.

ADDITIONAL OWL ACTIVITIES

The following activities in this Teachers Pack: Key Stage One are suggested as ways of using the process of learning about owls as a route into activities in many parts of the curriculum.

Science The owl’s place in the environment Activities 1. Find out what Owls eat. What do their prey eat? Introduce simple food chains. Make a class picture / chart of a food chain. 2. The owl is a raptor/hunter. What other raptors are in the UK? What other raptors can you identify in the world? What do raptors have to help them catch prey? 3. Play the “Find the Bird of Prey” game. 4. Find out about flying  Wings instead of arms.  The role of feathers.  Hollow bones with “honeycomb” strengthening structures make the bird very light.  Owls fly almost silently – can you find out how they do this?

Resources for Teachers Pack: Key Stage One 1. www.owlpages.com 2. www.ypte.org.uk 3. “Find the Bird of Prey” sheet 4. “Facts about Owls” sheet

Geography Owls are found on every continent except Antarctica. There are over two hundred different species which range in size from tiny Elf Owls only 5 centimetres long to the huge European Eagle Owl which can be as long as 80 centimetres. Owls have a high profile in almost every culture – they are either venerated or despised, worshipped or feared.

Activities 1. Select a geographical region and an owl that lives there and find out as much as possible about the  habitat / environment.  Food.  Hunting times.  The people’s attitude to owls  The threats to the owls’ sustainability etc. 2. Make a picture map of the area and put the results in your investigations. Find the country/area on the globe.

Resources 1. www.owlpages.com

History Owls appear in Egyptian Hieroglyphics ( opportunity for a side investigation of picture writing) and are mentioned in the bible. William Shakespeare is probably the originator of the” Tuwhit Tuwhoo” transliteration of the Tawny Owl’s call (This is usually two owls calling and responding to each other rather than one owl. One says, “Tuwhit” and the other replies, “Tuwhoo” ). Athene the Goddess of Athens, Wisdom and War had Little Owls as her messengers. The people of Athens venerated the Little Owl and encouraged them to live in the city on the Acropolis. For centuries a

little owl could be found on the four drachma coin and is still depicted on the one Euro coin of Greece today. The following suggested activities and the accompanying resources should give teachers ideas of how the study of owls and other birds of prey can illuminate and bring a focus to learning across the curriculum in the latter years of primary school work.

KS2

Science Activities 1. Create a diagram of a food chain or pyramid with either the Barn Owl or the Tawny Owl at the top. What does each animal eat? What are its habits and habitat? 2. Identify raptors among the bird species of the UK/your local region/ a specific local area. Find out about the places where they live – habitat. In what ways have each of the raptors developed adaptations to hunt in their habitats. Consider appearance, physical adaptations, sight, hearing and choice of prey animals etc. 3. How do you recognise different birds of prey? Name the different parts of a bird’s anatomy.

Language Development and Story Telling Activities 1. Find story books that include owls as characters. Work out a “sequel” to the book. 2. Some people see owls as wise, friendly creatures. Tell a story using a “wise old owl” as a character. Other people think of owls being frightening, ghost-like apparitions. Make up a story about a ghost owl! 3. Put up a picture of an owl and see how many adjectives the children can come up with to describe it. 4. How many words rhyme with – owl, hoot, flight, eyes.

Physical Development Activities 1. Owls are known for their silent flight. Develop ways of moving around without making a noise. 2. Blindfold one child or get them to stand facing a wall. They are the “mouse”. See how close the others can get before the mouse hears them!

Numbers Activities 1. Using the internet, find out how many  Flight feathers birds have  How many mice and voles a Barn Owl family will eat in a year. 2. Find a pattern for an owl nest box and draw out the pieces needed full size. You can do this on flip chart paper or on a suitable floor/wall/ board using chalk etc. https://theowlstrust.org/owl-hub/owl-education-programmes/teachers-pack-ks2/

PROMPT

WRITING ABOUT BIRDS (Comprehension)

“It's fierce, and it's wild, an' it's not bothered about anybody, not even about me right. And that's why it's great.” ― Barry Hines, A Kestrel for a Knave

Background

A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines was first published in 1968. Troubled teenager Billy Casper lives in a Yorkshire mining town. His life holds little interest or meaning for him until he finds a kestrel hawk. Billy teaches himself falconry and begins to work with Kes. Through this relationship he begins to learn about trust, responsibility and love. Billy's teacher has persuaded Billy to share what he has learned about falconry. Billy has never before shown much interest in class so his teacher is surprised at his specialist knowledge and vocabulary.

'I started training Kes after I'd had her about a fortnight, when she was hard penned, that means her tail feathers and wing feathers had gone hard at their bases. You have to use a torch at night and keep inspecting 'em. It's easy if you're quiet, you just go up to her as she's roosting, and spread her tail and wings. If t'feathers are blue near t'bottom o' t'shaft, that means there's blood in 'em an' they're still soft, so they're not ready yet. When they're white and hard then they're ready, an' you can start training her then.' 'Kes wa' as fat as a pig though at first. All young hawks are when you first start to train 'em, and you can't do much wi' 'em 'til you've got their weight down. You've to be ever so careful though, you don't just starve 'em, you weigh 'em before every meal and gradually cut their food down, 'til you go in one time an' she's keen, an' that's when you start getting somewhere. I could tell wi' Kes, she jumped straight on my glove as I held it towards her. So while she wa' feeding I got hold of her jesses an'...' 'Her what? 'Jesses'. 'Jesses. How do you spell that?' Mr Farthing stood up and stepped back to the board. 'Er, J-E-S-S-E-S'. As Billy enunciated each letter, Mr Farthing linked them together on the blackboard. 'Jesses. And what are Jesses, Billy?' 'They're little leather straps that you fasten round its legs as soon as you get it. She wears these all t'time, and you get hold of 'em when she sits on your glove. You push your swivel through.' 'Whoa! Whoa!' Mr Farthing held up his hands as though Billy was galloping towards him. 'You'd better come out here and give us a demonstration. We're not all experts you know.' Billy stood up and walked out, taking up position at the side of Mr Farthing's desk. Mr Farthing reared his chair on to its back legs, swivelled it sideways on one leg, then lowered it on to all fours facing Billy. 'Right, off you go.'

Discussion: How does Billy feel about the bird? How does the writing show us what Billy feels? Here are two poems about hawks:

Read both the poems out loud.

Hawk Roosting

I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Inaction, no falsifying dream Between my hooked head and hooked feet: Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.

The convenience of the high trees! The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray Are of advantage to me; And the earth's face upward for my inspection.

My feet are locked upon the rough bark. It took the whole of Creation To produce my foot, my each feather: Now I hold Creation in my foot

Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly - I kill where I please because it is all mine. There is no sophistry in my body: My manners are tearing off heads -

The allotment of death. For the one path of my flight is direct Through the bones of the living. No arguments assert my right:

The sun is behind me. Nothing has changed since I began. My eye has permitted no change. I am going to keep things like this.

Ted Hughes 1930-1998

The Windhover To Christ Our Lord

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king- dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing, As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing! Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier! No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear, Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.

Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844-89

Talk about the language - what words are new to you? Can you work out what they mean?

How does each poet make us understand what it is like to be a bird?

Which is easier to read?

Which do you like best, and why?

A birdwatching trip to your local nature reserve

(While there may not be any birds of prey, there are many other birds to study)

Select a bird to write about.

You might want to sketch them as well, to help you look carefully.

Make notes describing the bird - how does it appear, move, sound?

Think about the verbs you use - maybe make up your own, to get a sense of the bird.

Now, imagine you are the bird. Write again, this time from the bird’s perspective -

What do you see?

Where are you going?

How does it feel to be flying?

Graham Sutherland (1903–1980)

Nuptial flight. The dispatch of a queen by post Bee and flower Primitive hive I (skep) Bee keeper four prints from The Bees Portfolio 1977 aquatints

About the artist

Graham Sutherland was a British painter best known for his Surrealist abstractions of landscapes and figures.

Born on August 24, 1903 in London, , Sutherland went on to study art at Goldsmiths College in London in 1921, where he specialised in engraving.

His work was much inspired by landscape and religion, and he designed the tapestry for the re-built Coventry Cathedral.

Printmaking, mostly of romantic landscapes, dominated Sutherland's work during the 1920s. He developed his art by working in watercolours before switching to using oil paints in the 1940s. It is these oil paintings, often of surreal, organic landscapes of the Pembrokeshire coast, that secured his reputation as a leading British modern artist.

Sutherland taught at a number of art colleges, notably at Chelsea School of Art and at Goldsmiths College, where he had been a student.

He served as an official war artist in the Second World War drawing industrial scenes on the British home front.

Winston Churchill hated Sutherland's depiction of him. After initially refusing to be presented with it at all, he accepted it disparagingly as “a remarkable example of modern art”.

Neo-romanticism is a term applied to the imaginative and often quite abstract landscape based painting of Paul Nash, Graham Sutherland and others in the late 1930s and 1940s

Inspirations: Samuel Palmer, Paul Nash, Pablo Picasso

Bees Honey bees are like people. They live in communities and work hard to collect food to feed their young. Bees are small, but they play a huge role in our ecosystem – without them pollinating plants, trees, crops or fruit, our planet would be a very different place. Where there are few agricultural crops, honey bees rely upon garden flowers for a diverse diet of nectar and pollen.

How to draw a Honey Bee This link shows you how to draw a honey bee, step by step. It also includes lots of information on the bee at each stage. http://www.yedraw.com/how-to-draw-bee.html#.XLMknS3MxAY

Bee friendly garden (Willow Brook already has a bee friendly garden, but here are suggestions for developing the garden, providing students with an understanding of ‘bee friendly’, and ways of engaging with the garden.)

Encourage honey bees to visit your garden by planting single flowering plants and vegetables. You can sow these seeds in gardens, window boxes or any open spaces. Wild flowers that help to save our busy bees include: The allium family, all the mints, beans and flowering herbs, cornflowers, corncockles, corn chamomiles, corn marigolds and poppies. Bees also like daisy-shaped flowers – asters and sunflowers, and tall plants such as hollyhocks, larkspur and foxgloves.

Here is a link to a guide - ‘Ten favourite flowers for small gardens to attract Honey Bees’ https://www.bbka.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=be1feff7-9f9b-4f69-bd6a-3ed4fe969b3c Can you find these flowers and draw them?

Create a honeycomb display Use the honeycomb template (below) as a frame for each flower drawing, and build a honeycomb. Intersperse the flower drawings with your bee pictures, using the same hexagon template. You might want to include the following quotes in your display.

"A bee is an exquisite chemist" (quote from Charles II's beekeeper)

Here’s a song from William Shakepeares’ play, The Tempest (it includes not only bees, but also owls!)

“Where the bee sucks, there suck I” Where the bee sucks, there suck I: In a cowslip’s bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat’s back I do fly summer merrily. Merrily, merrily shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Extensions Invite a local beekeeper to visit Invite parents to donate flowers, or to come and help with planting. Decorate planting containers with a bee stencil.

Make a beekeeper’s hat Attach gauze or old net curtains to a wide-brimmed straw hat. Make some bees by twisting together yellow and black pipe cleaners, adding black ribbon for wings (a simpler alternative is to draw small bees and cut them out). Glue ‘bees’ to the outside of the netting.

Music and science extensions

Communicate like bees Bees communicate in the key of ‘C’ Listen the key of C - can you sing the Shakespeare song in that key?

Where the bee sucks, there suck I: In a cowslip’s bell I lie; There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat’s back I do fly summer merrily. Merrily, merrily shall I live now Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

Link: https://youtu.be/5lXxlRlUzYQ

Bees communicate through bone conduction. You can get an idea of how this works by holding a wooden stick (such as an ice lolly stick) between your teeth, and putting your fingers in your ears to block out sound. Touch the wooden stick to something that vibrates - a struck bell, for example. This is how the composer Beethoven experienced sound after losing his hearing: he would use the vibrations of a piano to ‘hear’.

Article on bone conduction http://blind.tech/interesting-facts-about-bone-conduction-from-beethoven-to-bees/

‘The Hive’ at Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew Bees communicate through vibrations. Scientists at Nottingham Trent University, led by Dr Martin Bencsik, only recently discovered this. And it is the influencing force behind Wolfgang Buttress's design for The Hive. He illustrates the vibrations through light and sound. And in the area under The Hive you can discover for yourself how it might be to communicate with a bee. Bone conductors convert the sounds from the beehive into vibrations which, when touched with a wooden stick, travel directly to the skull. This experience gives you an insight into the secrets of bee communication.

Further Information and links www.britishbee.org.uk (has leaflets on bee-friendly trees and shrubs)

JUNE BEE DAY VESTRY HOUSE https://vestryhousemuseum.org.uk/whats-on/swarm-artists-respond-pollinator-crisis/ Friday 14 June 2019 - Sunday 26 January 2020 (Free)

BEE WILD EXHIBITION VESTRY HOUSE Bees are in serious decline in the UK and across the world. Other pollinators such as hoverflies, moths and butterflies are also in trouble – since 2000 British butterflies have declined by 58% and over 75% of Europe’s insect population has been lost in the last 30 years. The biggest single threat to pollinating insects is intensive farming: its vast monocultures have shrunk pollinators’ foraging habitats, while heavy reliance on pesticides has a devastating impact on their health. Meanwhile, home and garden stores sell a wide range of pesticides for use by amateur gardeners that are toxic to bees. In Swarm artists Anna Alcock, Hannah Ford, Miyuki Kasahara, Alke Schmidt and Sandie Sutton respond to this crisis with new work that draws on the latest research into the causes of the alarming decline of pollinators. Featuring painting, printmaking, textiles, sculpture and installation, the exhibition is both a call to arms and a celebration of these wondrous and hard- working insects that are so vital to our food security. With Swarm, the artists share with us their enthusiasm for our pollinating insects and aim to inspire us to protect them. https://vestryhousemuseum.org.uk/whats-on/beewild/

Bee Poems link: https://poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/six-bee-poems/