Land art

For this fun project the children learned about the famous land artist Andy Goldsworthy. After seeing a presentation slideshow and taking a look at his beautiful book 'Time'. We ventured to the park to create our own ephemeral land sculptures. We documented the process with a camera. Take a look at our slideshow video, it may inspire you this Summer !

Andy Goldsworthy

Summer Camps 2012

I cant believe it's that time again this year is gone so quickly. We are glad to tell you that we will be holding camps again this summer in the Ballinlough Youth Centre, Cork and Faungorth Activity Centre, Kenmare. Check out details below and photos from last years end of camp exhibition. Thanks again to Go Gos who sponsored us with an extremely yummy and very large chocalate cake!

Have your children express themselves through art & drama in a fun, friendly & creative environment
6 Day Children Summer Camps in July/ August in the Ballinlough Youth Centre, Ballinlough, Cork and also Faungorth Activity Centre, Kenmare.

The program encourages creative thinking and imaginative play through a broad range of activities such as: Drawing, painting, Print-making, collage, mask-making, the art of mask, puppet making, puppetry, shadow theatre, drama, improvisation and games. Price is €100 per child and €80 for a sibling.
6-12 year olds welcome!
Spaces are limited and booking is essential please contact Rachel: 085 720 0242 or George: 087 606 3849 or email: thexpressivefactory@gmail.com


Ballinlough:       Week 1 - 9th July -14th July (9.30am - 1pm)
                            Week 2 - 23rd July - 28th July (9.30am - 1pm)

                                                                 Kenmare:           13th August - 18th August (9.30am - 1pm)

Half Mask

Here are some images from our last summer camps. The children learned about half masks in our 'Art of Mask workshop'. They all created their own unique characters which they used in their performances.

Easter crafts

Happy Easter ! In keeping with the easter festivities and enjoying the sunshine we decided to start our class with an Easter egg hunt in the park. There was plenty of chocolate bunnies and eggs to find and the Easter break got off to a good start. Take a look at the beautiful eggs my students created. We blew out the eggs before decorating them. We then collected some leaves and grass and anything that might make a good design on the surface of the eggshell.The eggs were placed in a pair of old tights with the leaves and grass and then boiled in a natural red onion dye.

Drawing with scissors

Cirque, Plate II, Jazz, Henri Matisse (1869-1954)

Inspired by the work of Henri Matisse and his use of pure vibrant colour, the students created their own unique collages based on the paper cut out works from his book 'Jazz'.

3d Textiles

Check out the adorable owls my Art student's created for Mothers Day.We even stuffed them with lavender for an extra special sensory treat.

"Shadowland" Pilobolis Dance Theatre

The Art of Mask

Ballinlough Exhibition 2011

Well done to all of our artists this week for working together and putting on a fabulous show for friends and family to enjoy. Give yourselves a big pat on the back it is a fantastic achievement.
We received some great feedback from parents thank you for taking the time to leave your comments in our guest book we appreciate the kind words and support.

"Jacob and Rebecca had a great week. Xpressive Factory is very apt, they expressed themselves so creatively and loved the projects. The exhibition was fabulous, very creative and professional. Thank you and please have more camps!". M. Sheahan

Also a huge THANKS to Joup on the Ballinlough road for generously donating a scrum-diddly-umptious chocolate cake for the opening of our first ever Xpressive Factory Exhibition. It was a delicious treat. www.Joup.org

Introduction to Printmaking

Today our factory artists tried their hands at printmaking. After a short workshop our enthusiastic 6-9 year old's were able to create their very own original prints.