AREFS taide ja kulttuuri ry
AREFS art and culture association

THIS IS MY BACKYARD - RÄMÄLÄ - class 5-6
MAP OF MY ENVIRONMENT - painting

Based on the idea that every way to your home has unique elements the children were introduced in the way how you can imagine your environment. Different kind of maps are illustrating that they are created to be for a different use.
To bring them into another imagination it helps to inform about the development of the landscape. Long time ago Finland was covered by ice and snow and when that disappeared grass, bushes and trees came up. Little animals, followed by bigger ones were living in this elementary landscape. Humans as hunters stepped into this world and later they settled and started farming. All the time the landscape changed and after ages it looks as it is now.
A white piece of paper is like the landscape under ice and snow and by starting to paint ice and snow disappear and there is coming a world in which animals and humans can live.


During the first session children are mixing as much colors they are able to make. This base is important to find a structure on which they can create the roads, houses, landscape elements and characteristics needed to organize their environment.

After the first session the paintings show a different start which will invite the painter to continue and to create an unknown outcome.

The final results will be published in the book THIS IS MY BACKYARD.

project funding 2013-2014:

©2009 AREFS taide ja kulttuuri ry, Finland. All rights reserved.
No reproduction by any means or in any language without prior permission of the author.