Queen Anne's students connect to nature with environmental art

Queen Anne’s students welcomed artist Greg Humphries for an ambitious three day workshop exploring environmental art.

Every year, Queen Anne’s Sixth Form art students travel to St. Ives to work with Greg Humphries, but for this project Greg brought his creativity to Caversham.

The girls were amused to find boats filled with stacks of willow in water propped up against the Elliot Art Building on Tuesday morning.

All of the art materials were grown in five woodlands in Cornwall, managed by the artist himself. They had been stored and soaked in order to keep their natural strength and flexibility before the students were let loose on the creation.

Under the enthusiastic guidance of Greg Humphries, our girls manipulated the willow into a giant curve structure representative of the organic forms found in nature.

I hope that, by helping build this sculpture, the girls really get to know the material, the ways that the willow can be manipulated, and really understand its breaking points. It’s a great hands-on way to be connected with nature,

- Greg