One Of My Rare Display Boards

Part of my job is “doing” displays, but these days I very rarely have time to do one as I would really like, as the paperwork element of my job just seems to have taken over, and “arty” displays are just not a priority. I’m afraid it’s a sad case of just wang the work up, I’m not proud, but at least I try and get it done in a vaguely symmetrical way.

However, I did have some time during the summer holiday, when the school was empty to spread myself out, make as much mess as I liked, without any time restriction …… my brief was to “recreate” the Skogafoss waterfall which we were fortunate enough to visit during our A Level Geography trip to Iceland at Easter. 

The board I had to fill must have measured approximately 5ft 6ins x 4ft 6ins (it may have been a little bigger) and I had a budget …… but I decided to do my own thing and use suitable bits and pieces I found round school.  So the gravel at the bottom of the falls was made from a collage of newspaper and the sky, similarly made, using scraps of blue copier paper……

…… and the water fall was made using layers and layers of white bin liners and shredded plastic sheeting.

The cliffs either side of the fall were the hardest to do, I am rubbish at perspective and I was doing this all by free hand and eye, constantly looking at the pictures I had ……

…… So I just got several lengths of black and green poster roll and cut them roughly to the shape of the rocks and then screwed them up to create something that resembled the texture of the rock.Next followed lots and lots of chalking and charcoaling and rubbing out, again trying to capture the texture.  It was at this stage I began to hallucinate!!!  Sometimes when I am working really close to something I need to just walk away from it and then come back to it, standing back and seeing it with fresh eyes.

And when I did, the next day, I could see where I was going and realised there wasn’t that much more to do.

I added a few very basic figures to try and give it some perspective

And then I had to try and get it onto the board in one go, single handedly!!!!

And, if it didn’t fit or look right, I didn’t have a clue what I would have done.

But it did, and I was dead chuffed.

If I may say, the pictures do not do justice to the depth and flow of the water ………… all those layers gave it a sort of fluidity and life …..

….. well, that’s my opinion any way!!!