This is a big year for the Isle of Man Nature Journal. It's the year in which we start to deliver workshops to schools and the full purpose of the journal takes shape. As a result, there will be some changes to the blog this year and a new sketching challenge. We need your help to continue to grow the interactive map so it can be the most effective and inspirational learning tool it can be. Please read on to find out how to take part in the 'One Thing' Walks Challenge and help us reach our artwork target.
From the outset, IOMNJ has been designed to encourage exploration of our wonderful environment here on the Isle of Man and to record its wonders for all to share. The map is designed to demonstrate that this one island can be enjoyed differently by each and every one of us and when we express this enjoyment through art, the results will all be fabulously different!
The map of artwork has steadily grown since it was started back in 2023, but we need a big influx of art now as we enter the school workshop phase. Workshops for schools will revolve around the map as we demonstrate that the Isle of Man is a great place to find inspiration for drawing, painting, collage, printmaking and all the other forms of visual art. The medium and the part of nature being depicted will depend on the individual and each of us will have our own style of creating. There are no right or wrong ways and the map will showcase this very well, as we can already see the diversity in how we represent the place.
The map is intended to inspire the students by showing them different ways of creating, that the same area can be represented very differently by different people, and to make them curious to explore places on the island that they may not have previously known existed, or perhaps that they are familiar with, but had never looked at in a certain way before.
We'll also practice some drawing techniques during the workshops, so children can feel they have the skills needed to begin sketching. However, the emphasis will always be that they will have their own style and abstract is ok - it's all about what comes from the soul! The children will also discover that you observe things in a special way when you draw them and get to know structures in a way you wouldn't with just a usual look. We develop very special relationships with the things we draw, whatever the outcome of the drawing itself.
The children (and teachers) will then be encouraged to go out on walks and to create sketches for the IOMNJ map. It will be a celebration of us all working together to promote the beauty of the Island, our individuality as artists and a record of the Isle of Man as it is today.
I realise it can be very daunting to go out and start sketching in the countryside. It's a big place when you're out with a small sketchbook. For this reason, I've devised the 'One Thing' Walk Challenge. The basic idea is outlined on the graphic below and I'd love for you to have a go at this too!
By focusing on 'One Thing' we can avoid feeling overwhelmed and are able to take a photo of the 'thing', sketch it in situ or perhaps bring it home if it's suitable for this (please don't bring home animals or anything that could be dangerous). I'm thinking a pebble, leaf, twig, feather etc. Also please don't uproot plants or pick flowers as they're much prettier left where they are and we want to protect our environment as much as possible.
Once you have a sketch, you can either develop it into a larger artwork, or send it in as it is to me at emma@iomnj.com. Make sure you add the details of the location the item was found in and then I'll add it to the interactive map. We currently have 47 items on the map and I'd like this to get to 100 before we start the workshops. The more areas of the Island that are covered the better, as I'd love for children to find artwork in places they're familiar with as well as finding places that are new to them.
I'll be spending lots of time designing the workshops around the artwork on the map, liaising with schools and writing funding applications, as well as going on 'One Thing' Walks myself. This means the blog posts are going to move from weekly to fortnightly as of this week. One post each month will be similar to those that I've already been posting (art supplies and book reviews, art techniques, posts about colour and pigments and our natural landscape on the Isle of Man). The other post each month will be an update on the progress towards growing the map and, when we get to them, the school workshops.
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