Andrew Tims has been working at Montgomery since 2012.  During this time he has developed a professional art studio and gallery space for the children to make and exhibit artwork. Additionally he has trained a group of children to take charge of the selection and presentation of artwork across the school site - the Monty Young Curators.

Andrew has been working in the arts in Birmingham since completing his art degree in 1996, firstly at Ikon Gallery and then at Fierce! Festival, followed by a series of high profile freelance positions for Creative Partnerships, Building Schools for the Future, Arts Council England, Birmingham City Council among others. 

Andrew has, since 2008, established a successful and award-winning career as an artist-in-residence in a number of Birmingham schools.  He is passionate about how the arts can transform children's lives and is particularly interested in working in response to the teaching and learning taking place in the classroom, allowing an immersive and connected experience for the children.

Crazy Creatures

Year 2 children worked in collaboration with artist-in-residence Andrew Tims to make artwork in response to their science topic about ‘materials’, and the felt sculptures by artist Cat Rabbit.

Cat Rabbit is a textile artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Using felt, recycled and vintage fabrics, Cat hand stitches plush sculptural works of her imagined characters and the worlds they might live in. Her work translates to many formats — from children’s books to large scale felt installations to magazine editorials — always with the aim of bringing softness and warmth to the viewer.

For this project the children worked in small teams to design and make an imaginary creature using a range of ‘materials’, including felt.  The felt was made using wool-tops, washing-up liquid and the heat generated by the children when rubbing the wool fibres with their hands. 

Once the felt was made, the two-dimensional material was turned into three-dimensional shapes.  This was achieved by sewing the felt into the desired shapes and stuffing them with polyester wadding, similar to how teddy bears are made.  These individual shapes were then sewn together, by the children, to create their Crazy Creature.  Stories about the creatures were created by the children and displayed with the artwork.

Ancient Egyptian Coins

Year 5 children worked in collaboration with artist-in-residence Andrew Tims to make artwork in response to their topic about Ancient Egypt, inspired by the animals that appear on Ancient Egyptian Coins and the animal paintings by German artist Albrecht Dürer.

Albrecht Dürer was born in Germany in 1471.  At the beginning of the 16th century, the natural world of animals and plants was becoming a focus of scientific and cultural interest as explorers and travellers were returning from distant lands with examples and illustrations of new species. Dürer shared this fascination for the subject which he revealed in many of his drawings, watercolours and prints.

For this project the children were involved in;

• Making observational drawings of toy animals onto watercolour paper, focusing on the shape, tone, pattern and texture.

• Adding Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic numerals to give a value to their coin.

• Applying tonal greys using watercolour paints and graded pencils to replicate the colours seen in images of Ancient Egyptian coins. 

• Using erasers to apply texture and age to their drawing.

The final drawings are presented on foamboard, with a black border introduced to frame the artwork.

Migration

Year 4 children worked in collaboration with artist-in-residence Andrew Tims to make artwork in response to their geography topic about ‘migration’, as well as the clay sculptures by Indian artist Sundaribai.

Sundaribai lives and works in a small village in the Madhya Pradesh region of India, west of Calcutta. Her art practice spells a clear departure from repetitive tradition. Notable for its vitality and freshness, it builds new narratives from traditional Indian iconography and symbols.

As part of the project the children focused on migrating birds, specifically the annual journey that the swallow species of bird makes from mainland Europe to the warmer climes of Africa in the winter season.

Using Sundaribai’s clay-building techniques, the children created their own swallow with air-drying clay, making the body, tail, beak and wings in separate pieces.  Once dry, these were glued together and colour applied using acrylic paints.

The swallows are grouped together on a wooden surface, covered with printed migration facts and figures.

Rocket Ships

Year 5 children worked in collaboration with artist-in-residence Andrew Tims to make artwork in response to their science topic about Space.  Rocket Ships, used for travelling into space, were the starting point for the project. The mono-prints by Scottish artist Georgina Bown were also used as the visual inspiration.  

Georgina Bown is based near the East Lothian coast in Scotland. The work Bown has produced over the last few years is focused on creating mono-prints, mainly of three-dimensional sea vessels.  This drawing style of mono-printing has been developed by Bown in order for her to concentrate on mark making as well as pushing and playing with the ink itself to produce one-off printed pictures.  

For this project, the children produced observational line drawings of rockets, that were developed into mono-prints using black water-based ink.  Watercolour paint and blended pencil marks were applied to the prints to add colour and tone, whilst at the same time help define their three-dimensional form.

The rockets, reduced in size on the photocopier, have been mounted onto maps of the solar system to illustrate their destination.  Further manipulation of the map backgrounds using block-printing techniques was undertaken, before applying cut orange papers to represent the fire generated from the rocket boosters.