Budding artists at a South Norfolk school took top tips from a local artist when he visited their school this week.

Diss Mercury: Artist Samuel Thomas shows his work to children at Aslacton Primary School. Photo Louise Mundford.Artist Samuel Thomas shows his work to children at Aslacton Primary School. Photo Louise Mundford. (Image: Archant)

Samuel Thomas produces landscapes of the Norfolk countryside and recently painted a Dragon to be showcased in Norwich as part of the GoGo Dragon event.

The artist worked with the pupils of Manor Field Infant school and Aslacton Primary school on the drawings they had produced in class.

The children had been using Thomas' work for inspiration and their teacher sent some of their work to the artist.

Thomas was so impressed with the quality of the work that he decided to visit the school and give a demonstration and talk.

During his visit, Samuel Thomas worked with three classes across two schools in the Corvus Academy Trust.

He shared some of his paintings with the children and invited them to discuss the colours that he had used.

He encouraged the children to say how colours made them feel and talked them through the processes involved in painting one of his pieces.

Famous for his scenes of the Norfolk Countryside, Samuel Thomas also spoke to the children about the inspiration behind his work and his childhood memories of Cromer.

He also drew the children's attention to his use of shapes and patterns in his work.

The artist encouraged the children to use their imaginations in their artwork.

He said: 'Art is never right or wrong. It's just an extension of your creativity.'

Samuel provided some drawing demonstrations exploring reflections and perspective.

The children then had an opportunity to have a go at some of these techniques and produced some inspired work.

Louise Mundford, class teacher and organiser said: 'It was such a wonderful opportunity to work with Samuel Thomas. The children appeared to thoroughly enjoy the sessions and were really engaged throughout.

'It was a great conclusion to the children's topic and made their learning very real. We hope that this visit will further inspire the children's artwork as well as the artists of the future.'

To find out more about Samuel Thomas' artwork, visit www.samuelthomasart.co.uk