What’s On

Sound and song play a central role in the work of award-winning British-Greek artist Mikhail Karikis, whose works employ the power of peoples’ voices and of collectively-produced sounds to focus on themes of social and environmental justice, human action and solidarity.

Our CAST-Off programme of free artist-led creative activities will return this summer, with sessions taking place on Saturdays from 1 August to 29 August in the walled garden at National Trust Penrose.

Artist Lucy Grant will lead free creative activities in CAST’s ground floor learning studio every Wednesday in August.

Use the power of the sun to create your own cyanotype print, build a wheeled contraption from wood, and move water using structures built from pipes and tubes. Paint a Loe trout using natural pigments and create a clay creature.

Imagine yourself as an architect and design your own house or building. Choose from a variety of cardboard shapes and objects to use as the building blocks to print your own simple and striking image.

Paint a colourful still life arrangement of fruit, flowers and vegetables, and create crowns from flowers. Build animals from wood and make houses and habitats of all shapes and sizes from clay.

I have always thought that explosions conceal and create possibilities for sculpture. For me an explosion was always a kind of mental liberation. The pressure, then the fear. After the explosion you feel incredibly free. I was just interested in that.

Join artist Lucy Grant to make colourful geometric mobiles inspired by the art of Alexander Calder. Make a stable base then cut out colourful card shapes and hang them from wire to create a delicately balanced moving structure.

Make prints using leaves collected from around the garden and look for detailed textures from which to make rubbings. Build folk-inspired wooden constructions, paint a portrait of yourself or of a family member, and create a two-tone plaque out of clay.

Make intaglio portraits of friends and family, using a print process employed by artists since the fifteenth century. The studio will be equipped with printing plates, etching tools, artist quality paper and a small press.

Make a painting inspired by the flora and fauna of the walled garden, and the landscape that surrounds it. Polish a pebble made from local Serpentine, then make a cosy pouch out of felt for it to sit in.