Marine life art adventure for Ramsgate Arts Primary pupils

Artist Lily Mixe with RAPS pupils

Acclaimed artist Lily Mixe has teamed up with children at Ramsgate Arts Primary to create collaborative and inspirational work.

During the workshops, they put together an illustration piece based on Lily’s intricate drawing techniques celebrating marine life.

Pupils studied natural forms under a microscope and drew these in pencil and pen focusing on texture and form. The drawings were then transferred to an old table top that was produced as the final piece, demonstrating the contrast between the drawings and the background.

Children then took part in a camouflage workshop, painting a natural form and tried to blend this into their background.

Art Teacher Kelly-Ann Smith said: “The children produced some outstanding work and Lily was very impressed with the standard and how engaged and interested the children were about the natural forms and her style of artwork.”

Originally from Paris, Lily now lives in Margate and focuses her art work on the unknown world of under the sea. She has recently had a solo exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London as well as creating one of the murals for the recent Rise Up residency in Margate that examines the plight of sea life in the face of marine pollution.

Inspired by numerous diving expeditions, and hundreds of notebooks and studies of animals and plants, Lily states that her work “examines life under the surface, the incredible unseen, silent beings we take for granted. I want to give a visual voice to the natural world. I want to celebrate nature in the same way we value precious stones and rare artefacts. I place nature as the highest currency on planet Earth.”