Year One are learning about art in nature and how artists use the natural materials around them to create impressive works of art.

We studied leaves during our art lesson this week and how the colours of leaves change throughout the seasons and in particular Autumn.  We carefully examined leaves and then the children drew a leaf in their artbook. After that, the children made their own leaf animal carefully cutting, overlapping  and glueing the leaves to create their animal.  All the children concentrated well and created some amazing animals.

Which one is your favourite?

During our art lesson today we learnt about the sculptor Alberto Giacometti.   The children then explored the versatility of tin foil as a material for creating sculptures and came up with a bank of key words for working with tin foil including,  malleable, flexible and scrunchy.  After that the children made an action figure, doing their favourite pose.  Finally, Mrs Pearson used a glue gun to glue their figure onto card and the children drew their figure’s shadow.

The children thoroughly enjoyed this lesson and the finished sculptures are spectacular!

           Caitlin and her winning entry                                Caitlin with her proud sister, Mikayla

Congratulations to Caitlin who won an art competition ran by Hampshire County Council. The Interfaith competition recognises  and celebrates multi faith diversity in Hampshire and the artwork on display was of an exceptional quality.  Caitlin’s painting  focused on the parable of the Lost Sheep and was the winner for the month of July.

Every classroom will have a copy of the calendar, so that you will be able to see an array of amazing artwork.

                                              Caitlin’s picture was displayed on the ‘big screen’.

                                Caitlin on the stage receiving her certificate and book token

Caitlin and all the other winners from Primary and Secondary schools across Hampshire.

We will be entering the competition again in the New Year ……. will you be our next winner?

I’m always keen and excited to see the art work that the children have done at home, especially when it is a skill that they have learnt at school that they have then applied at home.

Here are some examples of art work from home.

Eva created a hedgehog from a pom-pom and knitted a rabbit.  They are both very cute.

Esther painted a stone with hues of blue.  It really reminds me of the sea and it is peaceful and relaxing to look at.

Ann  has been working hard to improve her drawing and painting skills.  As you can see from these examples, practise certainly does help you to get better.  Well done Ann.

Please keep showing me your art from home and I will share more of them on the art blog soon.

Year 3 are learning about rocks and fossils, so for our art lesson this week  we studied them in greater detail.  First we did a continuous line drawing of our rock or fossil, using a black fine liner.  This skill means that the artist does not take their pen off the paper for the whole of the drawing. This was a challenge but the children rose to it well.

After that, we explored the use of carbon paper to make monoprints.   The children placed their carbon paper on top of cartridge paper and then tracing paper on top  of their carbon paper.  Then they carefully drew their rock or fossil onto the tracing paper with a sharp pencil. The children were fascinated to see their drawing appear on the cartridge paper…just like magic.

Not content with that we decided to challenge this even further by rubbing oil pastels onto the ink side of the carbon paper and then repeated the process.  The results were great!

During our art lesson this week we were learning about the life and artwork of Keith Haring.  His father was a cartoonist and this influenced his style to begin with. However, he then found his own, unique style that was recognisable around the world.  Even though he died in 1988 at the young age of 31, his artwork has lived on and even inspired our British ‘Change 4 Life’ campaign.

The children produced their own ‘Haring’ inspired artwork, which is both bright and vibrant.

During our art lessons we have been looking at different aspects of WW2, as this links to their Topic work.  During this lesson we looked at the affect that music can have on our thoughts and emotions.  We listened to different pieces of music and had to select the colours it made us think of and do different mark making on our paper.  After that, we thought of different ways that we can use art to express feelings and emotions associated with World War 2. We discussed what theme of the War they may want to portray in their art work and also what medium they may use.

As you can see from the pictures below the children chose a wide variety of themes and art medium including collage, paint, pastels and charcoal.

This was a very thought provoking lesson and the children concentrated well and produced wonderful artwork.

The children in Year 6 have been learning about the British artist Lowry in their art lessons. We looked at his sketches and paintings and compared and contrasted some of his work.  We focused on the way he drew people and on his industrial scenes of Manchester.  They have also been studying Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, in their English lessons.  I decided to set them the challenge of doing a picture of Dickensian London, in the style of Lowry.  The children worked on this over two lessons and were able to choose whichever art medium they wished, including watercolours, pencils and charcoal.

The children were very pleased with their pictures and so was I.

During our art lesson this week, we looked at pumpkins, as this links to the Year 2  food topic.  We had real pumpkins on each table and we explored the shape and colour of them. The children then had the opportunity to experiment with chalk pastels, blending and smudging them and mixing the different colours together to make new colours.

They then drew three different sized pumpkins and coloured them with hues of orange, blending red and yellow pastels. The children then coloured a night background and finally glued on their pumpkins.

The results are simply stunning!

During our art lessons, we looked at a selection of winter scenes painted by a variety of artists, including Monet and Hiroshige.  The children then  selected and mixed the correct colours of paint to create a winter scene, using brushes and sponges to create texture.  Finally, they selected their own medium, from black paper, oil pastels, paint and black pens to add detail and silhouettes to their picture.

The children were very pleased with the results, as was I, and I’m sure you will be too!