Newport Primary School by Coco Lom in London

Newport Primary School

I was commissioned by Newport Primary School in Leyton, east London, to create a 30-foot x 9-foot mural in their playground. I worked with the school's Year 4 pupils (aged 8) who helped me design the mural through a series of creative workshops which I led over two days. We shared ideas about how best to represent the school’s core values of respect, aspiration, care, integrity, creativity and being community-minded. I challenged the pupils to think about what these values might look like through the use of colours, shapes and patterns. We also used the school as inspiration for the mural, searching for different shapes and patterns we could see around us. From the repeated rectangles of their classroom windows to the stripey shadows of their playground fencing, we searched for shapes big and small, high and low. We used these as drawing inspiration and documented them through big chalk drawings on their playground floor. The children's workshop creations helped me develop the final design for the mural, which then took me eight days to paint. Encouraging the arts and creativity in young people is so important and it was amazing to share the development and design process with the children at Newport School. I'm so happy to have opened up a new way of seeing and creating for these young, curious minds.

Meet the Artist

Coco

London, United Kingdom

Hello! I'm Coco and I'm an artist and designer from East London and I would describe myself as a pattern seeker, colour lover, shadow chaser and stripe enthusiast. I've painted basketball courts, picnic benches, garden planters, walls, clothing, canvases and more. I'm on a mission to bring colour and pattern joy to both interior and exterior spaces. I’m hoping to open people’s eyes to all the joyful patterns, shapes and colours that lie around us and help us celebrate the quiet but mighty moments that we might not normally notice. I do this through my photography and my design work. Through photography, I capture everyday overlooked details, such as a stripey shadow on the pavement or a spotty pattern on a leaf, with these images often becoming the starting points for my design work. I make most of my artwork with one of my favourite tools - my photocopier! I start by scanning one of my shapes while dragging it over the moving scanner bed, and will then look at the outcome on my screen. I repeat this, scanning and looking, until I start to understand how I need to move my hand to achieve certain patterns and lines that I want to achieve. I like to think of it as putting together a piece of dance choreography, but for my hand rather than my body. Please drop me a message if you'd like to discuss an idea or project you have in mind - I look forward to hearing from you, whatever the project, where ever you are!

More artwork by Coco