And they picked the perfect day for it too!

It was a school trip with a difference when 25 pupils from Castle School took part in an end of year creative project here at Folly Farm. The pupils were tasked with capturing images of our animals through the mediums of paint, sketch or photography. They picked a beautiful sunny day and everyone enjoyed their time at the park.

The difficult job of choosing the winning entry fell to Folly Farms marketing officer, Gareth Morris, who commented:

“It wasn’t an easy task to decide a winner. There was so much skill on show it made my job very difficult indeed. In the end though, one entry just had the edge and really captured the essence of the chosen subject.”

Prior to their visit, art teacher Sarah Hope treated the pupils to a masterclass and this certainly seemed to stand them in good stead.

Sarah added;

“All the pupils enjoyed the day and some excellent work was produced. The animals at Folly Farm were a fantastic subject for the pupils to draw and photograph and they all enjoyed the experience. The Folly Farm prize was a great incentive for the pupils to aspire to create their best work.”

Head of Castle school Su Cowell added;

“The point of our whole school end of year project was to allow pupils the opportunity to try different creative activities that they might otherwise not have access to. Although the pupils have art lessons, some of them don’t choose to do it for GCSE and few of them have the chance of, or think about, photographing or sketching wild animals. Giving them free rein to go about the attraction and try out different techniques was wonderful and I know that some of the pupils have come away inspired to pick up their brushes and paint again.”

First prize went to Meg Harris for her lovely painting of one of our blue and yellow macaws. Her prize was a VIP ticket for four. Alongside Meg there were also two runner up prizes selected; so a big ‘well done’ goes to Pipa Jay and Iris Black.

Meg Harris, 1^st prize winner said;

“I have to admit that I haven’t done much proper painting because I don’t do Art anymore. I’ve made posters at school but it’s not quite the same. It was good to be given a brief to work to and I really enjoyed trying to capture the personality of the parrot. I was shocked to win and the fact that I did and the pleasure I got from the day have both given me the confidence to get my paints out again. In fact I’ve already dug them out and will take my sketch pad on holiday to Snowdonia this summer. I’m also looking forward to going back to the Farm with my family and using my prize.”