Friday 16th December was the private view of our Winter Exhibition! We had a great turnout, with lots of our artists and their parents and friends coming along to see the amazing work and enjoy some wine and nibbles. The exhibition was open to the public on Saturday 17th December and we had lots of lovely comments from visitors. We’re very proud of all the hard work our artists have put in this term, and they’ve all achieved amazing results!
This week in Indigo class we added embellishments to our textiles pieces which will be included in the Winter Exhibition. We will be documenting the exhibition in our Arts Award log books as evidence of sharing our work- the third and final section of the Award. Then our log books will be assessed!
This week we all finished off our masterpieces!
Most of our reception and year 1 and 2 artists had finished their Monet-inspired acrylic paintings last week so this week we played some painting games! We created crazy monsters by throwing dice to determine how many of each body part we had to add to our monster. We took turns to suggest body parts- some of our monsters had four arms, five legs and six belly buttons!
The year 3 and 4 artists used small brushes and cotton buds to add more detail to our paintings based on the work of Yvonne Coomber. We painted small circles within the larger circles we painted last week, using contrasting and complementary colours. We added some pearlised acrylic paint as a finishing touch to give our canvases a bit of sparkle! We were really pleased with how our paintings turned out.
This week the year 5 and 6 students used tiny brushes to add details to our Klimt-inspired Tree of Life paintings. Some of us chose an abstract approach, using Klimt’s painting to suggest ideas for patterns we could paint on our trees. Others decided to design motifs representing aspects of our lives, for example favourite sports, animals and hobbies. We used a combination of normal acrylic and pearlised acrylic to give our canvases a shimmering quality. They look great as a group!
Each class continued with their paintings on canvas this week, in preparation for our exhibition.
Our reception year 1 and year 2 artists added details to their paintings based on Monet’s Water Lilies. We practised the technique of layering up different shades of green and purple to depict a lily pad before choosing where to paint the lily pads on our canvases. We then learned how to create a lily, and added them to our work. The results are looking beautiful!
In our year 3 and 4 groups we continued with our paintings based on the work of artist Yvonne Coomber. We used toothbrushes and ready mixed paint to add tiny flowers using a splattering technique, which was great fun and really effective! We then moved on to acrylics, painting small circles onto the canvases to become more flowers. We discussed the idea of perspective, and aimed to show a sense of depth by painting smaller flowers in the background and larger ones in the foreground. We’re making really good progress and next week we will finish these paintings off!
In the year 5 and 6 groups we continued with our Gustav Klimt-inspired Tree of Life paintings. We sketched our own versions of the tree onto pre-painted canvases before using fine brushes and gold acrylic to paint our designs. All the swirls made it quite a fiddly job and we needed to concentrate! Next week we’ll be adding the finishing touches.
This week Indigo class completed our textiles project. We chose some fabric to use to create a cushion inspired by the work we saw at the Stamford Arts Centre exhibition. We sewed our fish lino print onto one of the sides, before pinning the two pieces face to face and sewing around the outside. We then turned the cushion the right way out, added stuffing and sewed up the last little bit. We’re really pleased with our results!
This week each class began working on their final painting to be shown in our Christmas Exhibition. We experimented with acrylic paint, learning how to use it in both its original and watered down states. We used a variety of tools, including brushes, pieces of cardboard and palette knives, to create different textures and effects. We then used our new skills to start work on our masterpieces on canvas!
Our reception and year 1 and 2 artists are working on a painting inspired by Monet’s Water Lilies. We worked with ready mixed paint first, learning how to alter the tone by adding white, and then used our colour mixing skills to add some purple tones. We practised creating wavy effects in our sketchbooks before painting onto our canvases. As a finishing touch, we used pearlescent blue acrylic paint to add some highlights, making a lovely shimmery effect. We will be adding the water lilies next week!
We have two year 10 students, Lilly and Phoebe, currently volunteering in Amber class as part of their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Amber class enjoyed having additional support!
The year 3 and 4 artists are working on a painting inspired by American artist Yvonne Coomber (see example, bottom right). We built on our knowledge of blending colours to create variegated washes to paint the background. We used a damp sponge to clean an area for the sun, and added yellow once it was dry enough. Next week we’ll be working on the flowers in the foreground.
The year 5 and 6 groups will be working on a painting based on Gustav Klimt’s Tree of Life (see bottom right). After investigating the acrylic paint and learning how to create a variety of effects, we sketched our own versions of the tree ready to transfer to our canvases next week!
This week in Indigo Class we continued with our fish-themed printmaking project, inspired by local artist Nicola Elstone’s work. We cut our designs from last week into a piece of lino, which was very fiddly and required a lot of patience and perseverance! Once the designs were complete, we created a series of prints onto thin cardboard, trying out various colour combinations. We finished by printing two of our chosen colourways onto a piece of cotton, ready to develop as a textiles project.
This week, each class built on their colour mixing work from last week to investigate warm and cool colours. We looked at an example of a warm/cool colour wheel, and decided where to place various postcard images around it depending on their dominant colours. We mixed our secondary colours and recorded the colour groups in our sketchbooks, then created some warm and cool artwork.
The Reception and Year 1 and 2 artists looked at the work of Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky. We created warm and cool abstract designs based on his painting ‘Circles’ (see photos). They looked great when we put them all together!
The year 3 and 4 students started the lesson by adding facial features to last week’s work to finish our secondary colour portraits. We painted pictures of trees in our sketchbooks, using warm colours on one side and cool colours on the other. We then looked at the work of contemporary British artist Anthony Frost (see example of his work below), and produced our own warm and cool designs in response to his abstract paintings.
The year 5 and 6 artists used their variegated washes from last week to create colourful collages. We cut our paper into eight strips before swapping four of them with a partner who had used different colours. We arranged the strips onto a piece of card and glued them down. The end result was really effective! We then discussed the use of warm and cool colours, and mixed secondary and tertiary colours from our colour wheel to use in contrasting warm and cool images.
We’re excited to be starting the new half term, which will focus on painting! We’ll be using a variety of different paints over the course of seven weeks, ending with a masterpiece on canvas.
This week was all about learning how to vary our brush strokes. We used a selection of brushes ranging from very thin ones (2mm) to wider ones (16mm), and ready mixed paint. We were reminded of the importance of cleaning our brushes in between colours, to avoid the paints becoming ‘muddy’. We practised various brush strokes in our sketchbooks, before creating a large scale group painting utilising our different brushes. We then worked on individual paintings, the challenge being to incorporate as many different brush strokes as we could. We had some very vibrant results!
Artivity 