Year 5, 6, 7 and 8 pupils from Dunedin schools including Warrington and John McGlashan College, Green Island and Balmacewen Intermediate visited the Dunedin Public Art Gallery to learn about Picasso and Spanish sculptor and ceramicist Joan Miro.
They heard about those artists from Antony Penrose, the son of war and portrait photographer Lee Miller and surrealist painter Ronald Penrose, who spent many hours with Picasso as a child.
Mr Penrose was in Dunedin yesterday at the end of a tour of New Zealand.
He wrote a 2010 children's book about Picasso called The Boy Who Bit Picasso, and was about to release a second on Miro, another artist with whom his family spent time.
The 68-year-old British author said his intention yesterday was to help children find their own artistic talent.
‘‘I'm trying to help them to discover every one of them has a natural talent.
‘‘It's just a matter of letting that talent out.
‘‘If they can be inspired by Miro and Picasso, that's one way forward.''
Of the sometimes striking works the children produced yesterday, he said he could ‘‘see some strong influences of Picasso'' in the young artists' efforts each interpreting Picasso's work in their own way.‘‘For me, that's what's really exciting.''
