In The Land Of Illustrations

St. John's Shopping Centre
17th October - closing date tbc.

Reviewed by Colin Serjent

Artwork by Liverpool schoolchildren is on view at St John’s Shopping Centre, as part of a national initiative between Arts & Kids, Land Securities and the Quentin Blake Gallery of Illustration.

Involving children from St Anne's Primary School in Edge Hill and Palmerston School for children with special needs in Woolton, it provides them with the opportunity to nurture their creativity by illustrating the area of the city in which they reside.

"The children were inspired by seeing local landmarks and exploring the stories which would bring their local environment to life", said exhibition spokesperson David Smith.

Pupils from Palmerston School have depicted nearby Calderstones Park using a collage of different textured papers and leaf rubbings, together with printed images of the Calderstones standing stones.

Children from St Anne’s produced illustrations which depict their local park, as well views of Liverpool's two cathedrals and St John's beacon.

Central to the project is a book for each school, created as an introduction to illustration and describing how artists have previously depicted people and places, alongside a commentary by the renowned artist Quentin Blake.

"There are many different ways of drawing the life of your own place," said Blake, "and when you start to find out how things came to be there, you may find that it too is a sort of voyage of discovery. This project gives children the opportunity to dream, to draw and to capture how they feel about the place they live in."

The work exhibited at the shopping centre will join other exhibitions staged by schools throughout England, Scotland and Wales for a final show at the Royal Academy in London in February.