Colin Slater

Entrance Lobby Mural at Gt. Doddington Primary

October – November 23

‘But it was just my imagination
Runnin’ away with me
It was just my imagina-a-tion
Runnin’ away with me’  (Barrett Strong / Norman Whitfield 1971)

A new location for a ‘Bigger Picture’ project, Gt. Doddington Primary, nestled cosily in a village situated just off the A45 close to Wellingborough, only about 20 miles from home. On a good day my journey time was only around 35 mins. However, the A45 & A605 are both very busy and unpredictable roads, so travel time was often much more than that, especially returning home in the evenings.

It was back in early Spring, 20th March to be exact, when I made my first visit to meet up again with Executive Head Teacher Josie Garnham. We’ve worked together several times before, in 4 different schools now, and receiving her email asking if I’d like to paint the entrance lobby at the school would be my 10th mural for her.

The entrance lobby is a square space; two sides having glass panels, the third side is a blank wall and the fourth houses the Reception office window and a collection of wall furniture (eg. boxes and info relating to the school alarm system as well as some plastic trunking).

At that first design meeting Josie and Chair of Governors Mary Bramham outlined their feelings about what they felt the entrance lobby walls should embody. Bearing in mind it is the area first encountered by everyone visiting the school it needed to be a clear reflection of its values, and present an impression of what children would gain by attending Gt. Doddington Primary:

• a strong rooted education foundation that would grow and flourish

• to develop a love of reading and a desire for enquiry

• a broadening of minds and imagination

• an expansion of horizons and expectations

• a suggestion of potential possibilities

Converting these notions into visual terms however created a significant design conundrum. How I might illustrate this concept simply and clearly as a pictorial manifesto was a challenge to say the least, and as the design evolved it was subjected to numerous alterations.

Needing reassurance about what I eventually considered as being a possible design direction I returned for a second meeting with Josie on 14th June to explain my most recent scribbles, returning again for a third meeting following the summer break with a more complete design proposal at the beginning of September. Josie was happy to give these final designs the thumbs up but for two minor changes, the ghost of Jacob Marley was replaced with a female footballer and the flying witch with an aeroplane as a symbol of long distance travel.

The compositions for the two walls direct the viewers eye toward the school interior and present both a male and female child reader engrossed within the pages of a book, safe and secure in their own private worlds. The whole is comprised of a ‘Real World/Make-Believe World’ scenario, real world being represented through a brightly coloured palette and an imaginary world presented in monochrome. As a reflection of the village location of the school each child sits in the calm tranquility of a rural setting beneath a tall and healthy tree. This bold element, combined with its entwined roots, acts as a metaphor to suggest ‘a strong rooted education foundation’. The contrasting worlds of what is imagination and what is actual include travel, history, fiction, non-fiction and engagement with life opportunities beyond an education framework.

The two walls face each other but rather than having two separate compositions I painted a leaf canopy across the ceiling to connect them. This was a very physically demanding activity and could perhaps be considered as an unnecessary addition too, but aesthetically this was definitely the right thing to do, though my neck and shoulders might disagree with this decision. Who was it that came up with this stupid idea anyway? Oh yes, that would be me.

In addition to being simply a visitor entrance, the area could now also be employed as an additional small classroom or small group reading space as the door leading outside can be locked. (Beyond this the locked school gate requires either a code or someone within the Reception office to open it).

As a learning resource the compositions on the walls can be used by all the age groups. They can be described to expand vocabulary, employed to suggest original storylines or utilised for counting games. For example, How many guns does the pirate have? How many stars are there? What scared the hawk? Is the pot-holer going down or coming back up? Where has he been? What has he seen? How many passengers are on the train? What is the boy reading about? What is the girl reading about? What is the time on the pocket watch? What is the mermaid dreaming about? How many flying books are there? What tune is the saxophone playing? Is the dinosaur happy or angry? Is he growling or singing? What other creatures live under the ground and what other objects might be found? What is archaeology? What might be beyond the trees in the wood? What sounds might we hear?

So how long did the project take? Before I began painting the walls I presented a whole school assembly to introduce the project and during my time at the school I delivered a drawing workshop to staff as well as to all of the different year groups.

I spent 23 days painting and 2 days leading drawing workshops. However, as for the unseen hours taken up with researching and developing images for the many different variations of the design before finding a solution which I thought might work for the two walls, I really don’t want to think about how many of them there were. But it’s like this for every ‘Bigger Picture’ project. Unless the design is right, the painting is never going to work, so that time is very necessary and worth its weight in gold…………. I’m just so very, very glad that I never count them!

Lastly, I decided to title this Bigger Picture ‘Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)’ simply because I couldn’t resist The Temptation, (although I actually prefer the version by the Rolling Stones).

Left Wall:

Right Wall:

Great Doddington Primary School, Church Lane, Great Doddington, Wellingborough NN29 7TR