Workshops

Boutcher School Mural 1.5M x 9M by Years 4,5,6 2022

St Mary Magdalen Mural Peckham 2016 Year 5

Rite of Spring Animation project with Years 3,4,5 Boutcher School Residency 2024

We created figurative sculptures from life drawings made in class. Poses were inspired by modern, ballet, folk and street dances and the work of Henri Matisse and William H Johnson.

We animated these sculptural figures, working in small groups of 3 pupils at a time to create a narrative celebrating Spring.

Watch the animation here…

https://youtu.be/62sP19QizpE?feature=shared

Rite Of Spring Animation Screening, Boutcher School Hall

‘Boutcher & Co’ William Morris  Printmaking Residency with Boutcher School Year 6 pupils 2023

William Morris inspired project. After a visit to the William Morris Museum we discussed Morris’s life and working ethos. We used his business model to set up a workshop printing t-shirts, tote bags, baby grows, greetings cards and wall paper. We worked as a cooperative discussing Morris’s love of environmentalism, social welfare and workers’ rights. We ran shops to sell our lovingly designed Boutcher & Co products to raise money for school trips.

All of these are handprinted llinocus, made by Year 5

Boutcher & Co Wallpaper

Greetings cards ready for mounting

Enquire about booking Ed Gray here info@edgrayart.com for school workshops, adult workshops, talks and events

‘ Art is central to my love and appreciation of life. I’ve been lucky enough to work in arts education for 29 years, initially as a volunteer in youth clubs and then as a PGCE trained teacher since 1999. For the last 22 years I’ve been a freelancer in public institutions, working with all ages from primary pupils to MA level students in the UK and abroad. I’m interested in creative thinking because I’ve had first-hand experience of the difference art makes to people’s lives in so many diverse community settings and prisoner education.

I work as a resident artist on specific bespoke art projects made in collaboration with partner institutions. I am interested in the concept of art as a cross-curricular creative experience within school settings. I also lecture and give talks about Art and The City for educational institutions such  as UEL. I create and deliver bespoke creative content for corporate events’

Ed Gray 2024

Education,Training and Teaching Experience

​Ed Gray has a diploma in Fine Art Foundation and a BA Hons in Fine Art. He began volunteering in the art room in a south London youth club and ran workshops for Magic Me and worked as a Notting Hill Carnival designer for M2K Mas Band before completing his PGCE and QTS in 1998. Ed taught Art and Design for five years in a secondary school in Peckham and has over 27 years of experience teaching and lecturing about art and creating and curating exhibitions for primary and secondary schools, colleges, adult education, universities, galleries, museums and public institutions.

Clients have included FIFA , Sir John Soane’s Museum, Dr Martens, Dulwich Picture gallery, Tate, Royal Drawing School,  Masterworks Foundation, Guga S’Thebe Arts Centre Cape Town, Masterworks Museum of Bermuda, City Hall, Thames Festival, Thames Luxury Charters, The Gherkin 30 St Mary Axe, Float Art Fair London, Southampton Solent University, University of Connecticut London, Queen Mary’s University London,  HMP Belmarsh YOI, Walworth History Festival, 2Inspire Youth Centre, National Museum of Football Manchester.

Tours for public and school groups at the House of Annetta 25 Princelet Street Spitalfields E1 6QH for Scenes of Innocence & Experience in November 2023

National Museum of Football Manchester staff INSET workshops on ‘Ways Of Looking at Art’and ‘The Art Of Sport’ 2019

Southwark Secondary Schools Artist Talks 2015

Langa Township Cape Town Art Workshop 2009

Langa Township Cape Town Art Workshop 2009

Gallery talk 2014

Lecturing about Hogarth for Sir John Soanes Museum London 2014

Walworth History Society Talk 2018

Primary School Testimonials

‘It’s a privilege to have Ed Gray, a working artist, sharing his passion, knowledge & skills with our children. The children learn so much more than art skills- history, science & maths to name a few’

Eilidh Verhoeven, Boutcher Primary School Bermondsey SE16 

Artist Residency 2020- present

University Testimonial 

Studio visit from School of Visual Arts New York

‘The Artist V Athlete perception and the similarity in their process – really insightful. I think it shows you can link art to any subject. Also the Visual Art Language – I will look at art more analytically now!’ 

‘I wasn’t aware of how extensive our museum collection was’

‘Ed’s approach very clear, inclusive, friendly, and non threatening and therefore ultimately very useful’

‘Great to have the opportunity to attend training focused on a specific area of the collection and linked to an exhibition; great to have this offered ‘in-house’ and for all departments. It was really good to see staff from other departments engaging with collection & exhibition’

‘Made me feel they wanted me to have as much knowledge as possible to do my job’

‘It has made me feel privileged and important within the team’

‘Ed’s approach very clear, inclusive, friendly, and non threatening and therefore ultimately very useful’

‘Adapted content to the audience really well – very supportive”

‘Really knowledgable, approachable, friendly, encouraging. A great teacher’

‘I had some art knowledge beforehand, but this has refreshed and expanded on that and I feel re-inspired!’

‘I can pass art knowledge onto Museum visitors.
I’ve never really spent much time looking at art before’

‘The 2 page crib sheet was good, makes you think more than the superficial’

‘It’s a rare opportunity for me to be included in a course that isn’t about business critical stuff eg. Health and safety’

Sample workshops for primary and Secondary Schools and Colleges: Key Stages 1-5 and FE

• Drawing- materials and techniques
• Observational drawing
• Painting: brush skills, mark making, colour theory
• Urban drawing and painting
• Creating compositions
• Museum and gallery stimuli- research skills
• Clothed life-drawing for primaries/secondaries
• Life sculpture- 3D modelling, maquettes, modroc, clay, paper mache
• 2D into 3D and back into 2D
• Contextual studies- art history
• Studio visits
• Professional skills

Sample Lectures,Talks and Workshops for Schools,Colleges, FE, HE and Corporate Clients

• INSET Training: Creativity in the Classroom- Using art as a stimulus for cross curricular learning
• INSET Training: Concepts and Conceits: Ways of Looking at Art
• We Are Creative: The Least important Most Important Thing of All
• William Hogarth: The First Modernist
• Dissecting Georgian Society: Hogarth, Soane and the Picture Room
• Hogarth at the National Gallery
• Watching Watchers Watching the Watched:The Spectacle of Adoration Scenes at the National Gallery
• Social and Urban Painters: Hogarth, Lowry,  Shahn, Lawrence, Bellows, Burra, Motley, Neel, Eardley, Mcfadyen, Perry
• Professional Skills for Art Students
• Capturing the Crowd: Urban Drawing and Painting- practical workshop
• Dynamic Life Drawing: Drawing moving figures- practical workshop
• Feeling the face: Portraiture workshop- practical workshop

Watch Ed’s Artist’s Talk for GX Gallery….

City Hall launch of The Mayor’s London & Londoners Art Exhibition curated by Ed in 2010

Speaking at GX Gallery exhibition launch

Gallery talk St Martin’s in the Fields London

Exhibition launch for Thames Luxury Charters with journslist and broadcaster Robert Elms and George Dyer Threadneedlman Tailor

Speaking at RichMix London launch for Ed Gray: Londonessence ‘A London Entertainment’

RichMix London Launch

Speaking at St Martin’s In The Fields Exhibition Launch 

‘Life as a working artist’ Art Career Interviews for University Of Southampton Students