Stratford pupils have art on show in gallery

Destany Robinson pictured standing to the side of her painting of a kereru.

Artwork by some talented primary school pupils is on display at a local gallery.

Pupils from room 1 at Stratford Primary have been working on an art project designed to fit in with their school's Enviroschool ethos.

The pupils, in Years 7 and 8, have been creating artwork designed to last outside for a long time, inspired by New Zealand's native creatures.

Josh Savage painted a New Zealand falcon.

Teacher Ashleigh Crowley says a focus on sustainability influenced their work, which will eventually be on display outside the school.

To inspire them, the class visited the Fenton Street Art Collective to see works by artist Janet Marshall, and their own work is now on display there.

"It's nice to see it up on the walls in the gallery."

Alice Bond says she liked seeing their work on display.

She says looking at the work of other artists helped them make their pictures as realistic as possible, and she enjoyed seeing all the different creatures painted.

Each pupil chose a different New Zealand creature to paint, and while Joby Gavan chose a long tin eel because he likes eels, other pupils resorted to playing Rock, Paper, Scissors to work out which one they would work on.

Joby says painting with outdoor paints was quite different to other art projects they have done.

"You had to be quick to change anything if you made a mistake, you couldn't let it dry."

Gus McCullough stands by his painting of an Archey's frog.