Springboard Stories www.springboardstories.co.uk/issue3 Food Springboard Stories Issue 3: Food Teacher’s notes: About the art and artist Sonia Callaway Life and work Sonia was born in Plymouth, Devon in 1962 but in 1969 emigrated to Perth in Western Australia with her family. After leaving school in1978 she was employed as an Apprentice Compositor in the printing industry. At the time, very few women worked in printing and Sonia was the first female in western Australia to break into this all-male industry. Finding her art Sonia married in 1983 and continued working in the printing industry. But during this time she became more interested in her own art and attended various arts and crafts classes after work. Sonia did a foundation course in Art and Design in Australia which included painting, drawing, textiles and print making. In 1990 Sonia became a mum and in the same year moved back to England with her family to Cornwall, where she started painting on all sorts of objects, mainly old boxes. Inspiration From an early age, Sonia has been inspired by visiting art galleries, especially seeing Henri Rousseau’s painting Tropical Storm with a Tiger and Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night. For Sonia, these paintings convey mood and emotion and a window to a different world. Her painting is also inspired by her love of the countryside and stories of magic and folklore. Mystical creatures Stories play a big part of Sonia’s pictures, and different characters pop up as helpers or mischief makers. Anything can happen in Sonia’s paintings: mermaids can visit, and the black hatted witch will usually make an appearance on her way to who knows where. Sonia thinks painting is one of the best things you can do, next to reading, making fairies and swimming. She also enjoys working at Melinsey Mill, a wonderful café and gallery based in a 16th century water mill near Truro where she is also Artist in Residence. Web links Melinsey Mill: www.melinseymill.co.uk Naïve painters’ site: www.britishnaives.co.uk Right: Sonia’s painting Just in the Roseland www.springboardstories.co.uk/issue3 © 2013 Springboard Stories Springboard Stories Issue 3: Food Teacher’s notes: Little Callestock Farm What’s the story? Stories play an important part in Sonia Callaway’s work. Talk about the painting Little Callestock Farm and encourage the children to think creatively about what they see. The painting Little Callestock Farm offers lots of potential for creative discussion and storytelling. The farm in the picture is a real dairy farm in Cornwall but, before revealing this information, give the children plenty of time to explore the picture, talk about what they see and speculate on the story behind it. Display the poster or, for a whole-class discussion, view it on an interactive whiteboard. Encourage the children to look closely at the detail and to talk about what they see. Ask open-ended questions that will allow children to give meaningful answers based on their own knowledge and feelings, for example: • What do you see in the picture? • Tell me about the animals in the picture. • Is there anything in the picture that surprises you? • What other interesting things can you see? • How does the picture make you feel? • What food might this farm produce? Encourage the children to use language of position to describe the painting, for example: In the foreground, there are…; On the left-hand side, I can see…; In front of the house there is…. You can then focus in on areas that children may have overlooked, using questions such as: • Does anyone know the name of the bird standing on the path on the left-hand side? (A pheasant.) • What job do you think the man in the red tractor is doing? (He is harvesting grass for silage to feed the cows during winter time.) • What is the man on the quad bike doing? (He is bringing a freshly calved cow and baby back to the farm buildings.) • What do you think the lady in the garden is doing? (She is putting out feed for wild birds.) • Do you know the names of any of the flowers? (For example, sunflowers, daisies, tulips?) • Why might the birds have landed in the field on the left? (To eat the farmer’s crops.) • Why is the man on the tractor waving? (If the children haven’t noticed, point out that the cows and the dog are also looking straight ahead. Why might this be? Maybe someone is arriving at the farm or passing by? Who could this be?) • Do you think Little Callestock Farm is a real place? Why? Why not? (If children haven’t talked about the witch and the fairies, bring them into the discussion. Are these characters real? Does this affect their view about whether the place is real?) Further ideas Encourage even closer observation of the painting by playing a quick game of ‘I Spy’. Children could work in pairs or small groups to make up a conversation between two or more characters in the painting. The conversation could be between the people in the picture talking about their busy day on the farm, between the lady and the person she’s waving to, or even between two of the animals. Ask the children to present their conversation to the class as a short play. Can the other children guess who’s speaking? Let the children develop their conversation into a story – either oral or written – or use the painting as a stimulus for a fictional diary based on one of the characters in the painting. www.springboardstories.co.uk/issue3 © 2013 Springboard Stories Springboard Stories Issue 3: Food Teacher’s notes: Information text The real Little Callestock Farm right of the farmhouse with the fairy on the roof is the largest holiday cottage where families stay when they are holiday here on the farm. The farm is just 10 minutes away from some of Cornwall’s best sandy beaches and the farm animals are an extra draw for young families. The barn with the owl on top is where we store the straw bedding for the animals to use in the winter. What animals do you keep? We keep Jersey cows like the ones shown in the picture. They live in the fields So what is the true story behind the painting? towards the back Liz Down, co-owner of Little Callestock Farm and of the painting. We the painting of the same name tells us about her breed all of our own lovely little piece of Cornwall. cows and as soon as Little Callestock Farm is a real dairy farm in Zelah they are born they near the cathedral city of Truro in Cornwall. I own are given a name. and run the farm with my husband Nick. You can see In 2012 the names me, as well as Nick and other members of my family began with S. It’s a in the painting. different letter each year, so in 2013 the Who’s in the picture? names will begin Can you see the woman on horseback in the top with T. We get our right of the picture? That’s me! My horse’s name is guests to come up with ideas for names for the Marjory. Marjory and I are keen members of our local babies – it’s great to be able to involve them. Our Riding Club and we take part in competitions there. dairy cows produce delicious creamy golden milk. My husband Nick is the man on the quad bike. The We sell it to a company called Roddas. You may have calf you can see had only just been born and Nick heard of them – they make clotted cream and butter was bringing the calf and mother back to the farm and sell liquid milk. They are just a few miles away buildings. The driver of the red tractor is my son from us, so we keep the food miles to a minimum. Ben. Ben is harvesting grass to make into silage to feed the cows. You can also see my dad Jack, waving to passers-by on the green tractor; my mum Mary, feeding the birds; and our little dog Sandy the Jack Russell (also shown in the photo on the right), sitting on the back of the cow in the foreground. What are the buildings? The main farmhouse is the one with the wisteria (climbing plant) on the front and that is where Nick, Ben and I live. As well as running the farm, we rent out some of the farm buildings as holiday cottages. You can see some of the holiday cottages in the courtyard behind the sunflowers. The cottage to the www.springboardstories.co.uk/issue3 © 2013 Springboard Stories Springboard Stories Issue 3: Food Teacher’s notes: Information text How did the painting come about? I saw a painting that Sonia had painted for a lady that runs Halwyns Tea Garden on the Fal Estuary and fell in love with it. I then took a trip with a friend of mine over to Melinsey Mill to see Sonia’s other work and also to ask her if she would paint a picture for me. Sonia came to our farm and spent a couple of hours gathering information. I also sent photos of everyone that I wanted to be included in the painting, plus some views taken from around the farm, then basically left it to her. The fairies and witches are a trademark of Sonia’s (she loves fairies and also makes them) and I think they give the painting a lovely, magical feel.