On a sunny Thursday morning in late September, 18 kindergarten students and their teachers from Salt Lake City’s Lowell Bennion Elementary School walked the block and a half to Gilgal Sculpture Garden to participate in an art project.
Paul Heath, the school’s art teacher, used a Cyanotype process, a camera-less technique that involves laying an object on paper that has been coated with a solution of iron salts, exposing it to sunlight, and then washing the paper with water, leaving delightful white and blue images.
Heath assisted the students in collecting items from nature—a leaf, a twig, grasses, and flowers.
Then, working with each one individually, he showed them how to arrange their collected items on a piece of the coated paper before leaving each one to spend some time in the sun. By the end of the hour, all students had contributed to the project.
In late October, Bennion Elementary held its annual Art Night where the students’ delightful artwork was on display in the school for parents and community members to see. We look forward to having Bennion students and teachers return to explore more artistic opportunities in the garden!
