Inspiring children around the world to connect to the natural world using art is our aim for Last Chance to Paint, so you can imagine how happy we are to have over 250 schools in more than 24 countries involved.
We are all going through a devastating and distressing moment in human history, and it is likely that the current Covid-19 pandemic is connected to our devastating effect on the natural world and our abuse of animals. Zoonotic diseases are linked to environmental change and human behaviour, so it is even more vital that we connect children to the natural world and create a love and bond so that they respect and value it as they grow. Our lives literally depend on this and one of the Last Chance to Paint team, Robin Hanbury-Tenison is still fighting for his life as he struggles to recover from the virus and has been in intensive care for over a month.
We don’t get to see all of the creativity being generated by our project around the world and not every school has uploaded art, but many have, and from time to time we pick up amazing social media posts of whole classes and schools busily creating amazon Yawanawá tribal face painting designs and amazing orangutan and rainforest paintings.
Our recent 2019 awards focused on some of the most amazing pieces of art that have been uploaded to our World Gallery and we are thrilled that the Big House Art Workshop in Hong Kong did so well in these awards.
Kerry Lee from the Big House Art Workshop took the time to email us these wonderful photos of the children receiving their awards in-front of their original pieces of art.
These images are really powerful for me as they show our international reach and young people connecting directly to the natural world with art. It is a real celebration of the young artists’ creativity and our amazing natural world and I hope it will inspire more of you to get your children involved in this extraordinary project.
The current lockdown offers an opportunity for families to run our first two chapters of Last Chance to Paint at home, the teaching resources, vlogs, blogs, my paintings and our photos are the most amazing resources to use. We are still happy to take questions from your children to make it ‘live’ too. So get out the art materials, or improvise (old packaging boxes cut up and glue are perfect for collage) and connect your children to the natural world now.
Keep safe and stay inside.
John Dyer.