Growth of the soil – short version, Workshop catching the spirit of nature through inspiration from the famous writer and poet Knut Hamsun, Hamarøy, Norway
This was a workshop custom made for the opening week of the Hamsund centre in Hamarøy. The workshop was based on Knut Hamsuns authorship focusing on his passion for nature. Hamsunfestivalen, Hamarøy, Norway
The children were between 6-12 years old and it lasted for 6 hours.
This workshop was an opportunity to get familiar with and befriend the landscape that was an endless source of inspiration for the worldfamous, local writer Knut Hamsun. In-spiration comes from the Latin in-spirar, which means to breathe. This was our starting point for the day. I wanted the children to enjoy sharing their breath with everything around them – with plants and trees, animals and birds, with air and earth and with each other. My aim was to create opportunities for the children to use all of their senses, to discover the unseen and see what we easily overlook and to rediscover what we take for granted. The journey of process and discoveries were more important than the finished artwork. It was more important that everybody should get inspired and notice the richness of colours, smells and materials around them.
We found “our joyful places”, we made nests or architectural structures, we made pigments of natural materials and painted a collective painting and we were looking at the world through magnifying glasses. We also made delicious tee from leaves in the wood that we enjoyed with our lunch packs!
