Last week we created a storm in the galleries at National Museum Cardiff with our Easter workshops. Families who took part got to make their own pop-up landscapes inspired by John Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831. This activity was part of the Aspire programme, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund.

Here are some of the mini masterpieces created.

We were impressed by the variety of skies! Some were stormy and brooding. Others filled with colour and light. Butterflies, bees, and a murder of crows all made an appearance – and, of course, some beautiful rainbows.

If Constable were alive today he surely would have approved! For him the sky was the most important part of a painting. It creates feelings, mood and emotions. I wonder what mood our families were in when they created theirs?

Whatever mood they were in at the time, they left the workshop feeling happy! Families were asked to complete the sentence ‘the workshop made me feel...’, and to hang it on our specially-created comments cloud. ‘Happy’ was the most popular response! Here are some others:

The workshop made me feel…

• Happy happy and I loved it a lot - Jack
• Interested because I like learning about Constable
• Hapus fel y gog achos rwy’n hoffi celf a chrefft
• Welcome ♥

Find out more:

Explore Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831 with this interactive guide.

Download a free pack for teachers from our Learning Resources page.

Download our Landscape and Lights family trail

Aspire

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows was purchased by Tate with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Manton Foundation, the Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation) and Tate Members in partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service, National Galleries of Scotland, and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, 2013.

To secure the painting, a unique partnership initiative was formed between five public collections: Tate Britain, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland. This initiative, named Aspire, is a five-year project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund enabling the work to be viewed in partner venues across the UK. National Museum Cardiff is the first venue to display the work.

Adrian Plant continues his fieldwork in the Amazon in collaboration with Jose Albertino Rafael and Josenir Camara from INPA (Brazil’s national Amazon research organisation) in Manaus.

So far two field-trips to remote corners of the Amazon have been successfully completed. The first was to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira high up the Rio Negra not far from Brazil’s borders with Colombia and Venezuela and the second to a major tributary of the Amazon along the border with Peru at Benjamin Constant.

The forests of the Amazon Basin are flood forests; they become seasonally inundated by the flooded river and the waters bring with them many of the nutrients essential to the forests great productivity throughout the region. This year the forest remains unusually wet for the time of year which has caused a few practical problems for field entomology.- it is an acquired pleasure to slosh around in deep mud and water searching for new and interesting insects under a constant plague of biting mosquitoes. Yet, to an entomologist this is more or less a definition of “fun”!

The biodiversity is amazing of course and many of the insects seen and collected are undoubtedly new to science but will require much study in more comfortable surroundings after returning from the field. Meanwhile, Adrian will shortly be setting out on a third fieldtrip, this time to a little known area  between the mouth of the Amazon river and French Guiana where many exciting discoveries will undeniably be made.

Os oeddech chi yn ymweld â Llundain yr wythnos diwethaf mae’n siŵr eich bod chi wedi sylwi bod yr awyr yn llawn llwch – fel edrych drwy gwmwl brwnt! Ond beth yw mwrllwch, a beth yw’r gwahaniaeth rhyngddo â niwl?

Beth yw niwl?

Cwmwl ar y llawr yw niwl! Llawer o ddiferion dŵr mân yn hofran yn yr awyr yw niwl ac mae’n rhan naturiol o’r tywydd. Mae niwl yn helpu i ddyfrio planhigion ac yn ddiogel i chi ei anadlu i mewn.

Beth yw mwrllwch?

Llygredd aer yw mwrllwch. Mae’n cael ei gynhyrchu wrth i niwl gymysgu â mwg a nwyon cemegol ceir a ffatrïoedd ac mae rhai o’r cemegau yma’n wenwynig! Mae’n niweidio planhigion ac anifeiliaid a gall fod yn beryglus ei anadlu i mewn.

Mae’r mwrllwch diweddar yn Llundain yn gymysgedd o niwl, llygredd a thrydydd cynhwysyn – tywod o’r Sahara! Anialwch anferth yn Affrica yw’r Sahara ac mae peth o’r tywod yno yn fân iawn, iawn fel llwch. Weithiau bydd stormydd gwynt yn codi’r llwch a’i chwythu filoedd o filltiroedd i’r DU. Dyna siwrnai hir!

Yn anffodus, mae’r gymysgedd o niwl, llygredd a llwch yr anialwch yn golygu bod mwrllwch Llundain yn niweidio’r ysgyfaint, ac mae wedi gwneud rhai pobl yn sâl. Mae mwrllwch yn un rheswm da iawn pam y dylen ni i gyd geisio lleihau llygredd aer!

Beth alla i ei wneud i leihau llygredd aer?

Meddyliwch am lygredd aer… beth sy’n ei achosi? Allwch chi feddwl am 3 pheth y gallech chi ei wneud i leihau llygredd aer? Trafodwch yn y dosbarth cyn gwirio eich atebion yma (gwefan Saesneg).

Let me introduce myself, my name is Mar Mateo Belda, I’m a paper conservator and after working in different cultural institutions in Spain, Nicaragua, Cuba and the United States, I’ve got a traineeship at the National Museum of Wales.

The purpose of this traineeship is to carry out conservation of the 66 lithographs from the portfolio “Efforts and Ideals” in 1917 that will be exhibited at the beginning of August 2014 with the title “The Great War: Britain’s Efforts and Ideals”.

Let’s get the show on the road!

I’m sure that for most of you, paper conservation sounds like interesting and weird all at the same time and for that reason you need to watch this space to find out what it is and what I’m doing.

The first step we follow before carrying out the conservation treatments of the works is making a condition report to assess the conservation condition of each of them. The next step is to photograph them all to capture the initial condition of the prints.

Gan Kath Slade

Mae’r tîm wedi dychwelyd o’u gwaith maes morol yng ngorllewin Iwerddon gyda digonedd o sbesimenau i’w cadw’n brysur, gan gynnwys gwymon. Amserwyd y gwaith i fanteisio ar sawl llanw isel iawn oedd yn ein galluogi i gasglu sbesimenau ymhell i lawr y traeth sydd heb addasu i gyfnodau hir allan o’r dŵr. Er hyn, dim ond tua dwy awr a gafon ni i samplo tra oedd y dŵr ar ddistyll.

Mae sawl gwymon coch i’w gweld ymhellach i lawr y traethau, fel y Gwymon Cochddail (Delesseria sanguinea), Gwymon Crychog Mânwythiennog (Cryptopleura ramosa) a Gwymon Bachog Bonnemaison (Bonnemaisonia hamifera).

Roedd tipyn o waith prosesu i’w wneud yn syth wedi’r casglu gan nad yw gwymon yn para’n hir allan o’i gynefin naturiol ar lan y môr. Cafodd nifer eu harnofio mewn hambyrddau dŵr môr er mwyn lledu’r ffrondiau (neu ddail), cyn eu trosglwyddo i bapur codwm cadwraeth a’u gwasgu. Cafodd y sbesiemau eu pentyrru gyda phapur blotio rhwng pob planhigyn i amsugno’r dŵr cyn eu gwasgu mewn gweisg planhigion mawr, fel y rhai a ddefnyddir i wasgu blodau. Cai’r papur blotio ei newid bob dydd er mwyn tynnu cymaint o ddŵr â phosibl. Wedi dychwelyd i’r amgueddfa gosodwyd y gweisg mewn peiriannau sychu i gyflymu’r broses ac atal y gwymon rhag pydru.

Mae’n anodd adnabod rhai gwymon o’u nodweddion allanol yn unig. Casglwyd darnau bychain o rai rhywogaethau a’u gosod mewn gel silica. Mae hyn yn sychu’r gwymon yn llawer cynt ac yn cadw’r DNA mewn cyflwr gwell er mwyn gwneud gwaith moleciwlaidd yn ddiweddarach. Cadwyd sbesimenau eraill mewn formalin, sy’n tynnu’r lliw o’r gwymon ond yn cadw manylion y celloedd a strwythur 3D y planhigyn. Bydd gwaith adnabod pellach yn cael ei gynnal yn ôl yn yr Amgueddfa.

Mae’r holl waith paratoi yn ein galluogi i gadw gwymon ar gyfer astudiaethau gwyddonol yn y dyfodol.  Cedwir y sbesimenau ym Mhlanhigfa Genedlaethol Cymru (casgliadau planhigion) yn yr Amgueddfa, ac mae pob un yn brawf o’r gwymon oedd yn bresennol ymhle ac ar ba bryd. Mae’r broses wasgu mor effeithiol nes y gall sbesimenau bara am gannoedd o flynyddoedd.