recent

The mural on the FS1 wall continues to grow - this is part of the section supposedly showing children at play!

 

In FS2 we've painted, based and rigged our salt dough pirate ships.

In Y1 we painted our clay fish....

....and created underwater seascapes to display them.

In Y2 we began to papier mache the dinosaur heads - ready to take the pneumatic operating system (syringes and plastic tubing!).

today

Today in Y1 we painted the clay fish. We might give them a coat of PVA when they're fully dry just to give them a bit of protection/shine. They will be mounted in under sea dioramas eventually - more of which anon.

 

 

In Y4 we completed our paper engineering - lever mechanism pieces. This one, when the lever is pulled/pushed, operates and moves all 3 oars simultaneously. Next week we're moving on to cams!

drawing

Today we hosted a group of children from a local German school. I had to do an art activity that lasted no more than 25/30 mins. for 3 successive groups.  I decided to hit them with my trusty 'snow-cone figures' concept! From an ice cream cone (ein eis) we drew a variety of different figures - astronauts, ballerinas, skateboarders etc. I guided the children through a couple of them, step by step and then encouraged them to come up with ideas of their own.

 

They responded really positively and came up with some very interesting sketches - even more so when I showed them that an ice cream cone (with cherry!) can also be used as the starting point for drawing animals.
Their teachers seemed suitably impressed with their efforts and took away spare copies of the booklet to use with other children in their school.

prints

Today we've been printing. We blockprinted using polyprint (a thin polystyrene tile) and inks to create simple two coloured designs.

 

 

 

 

Oh....and I've finished the large footy painting! Not sure what I'm going to do with it though - if I listed in my 'shops' it would be too large to post! Might just hang it in the staffroom for now.

clay

Spent the whole day up to my elbows in clay. First off, with Y1 making fish - impressed details. Secondly with Y2 and representations of fossils - relief modelling. The aim is to either paint them when dry or apply polish and buff!

 

Can't wait to get the new kiln set up and running - it's only been in it's packaging since March! I'm waiting to move into my 'new' art room - at the moment I have to constantly move all the materials and resources from room to room/floor to floor, depending on which class I'm teaching - frustrating!

today

A-haaargghhh - 'tis pirate ships we be drawing today in FS2. 

 

 

....and the BIG picture is slowly getting there.

 

the BIG 'un

A close-up of progress so far. Some of the shading/shadowing has been started. I'm going to paint the background a mid-grey, hence the overpainting at this stage. I've got to go over the red and blue again 'cos it looks a bit patchy - might just try and glaze it instead of giving it another thick coat.

 

today

The mural on the outside wall of FS1 continues to develop. This is obviously a section that features various forms of transport. The children are going to draw faces onto thin paper which will then be glued into the windows - the whole wall will then be sealed with a coat (or two) of clear varnish.

 

 

 

 

In FS2 we made pirate ships from salt dough. We'll let them air dry before painting and attaching sails, jolly roger etc.

 



 

 

Meanwhile, I've begun to paint the 'huge' canvas.

 

BIG!

Way out of my comfort zone with this latest piece! On a whim, I bought a 70 x 90cm canvas the other day and upscaled one of my footy drawings onto it. Am going to paint it with acrylics and see a) if I can actually manage to do it! and b) if it 'works' as a painting. You never know - it might be the making of me. Wish me luck!

 

 

On an easel 'cos it's too big for me to paint on the table! Another first - easel painting!

under the sea

As part of their studies about water, yesterday the y1's created underwater pictures using the resist method. We used oil pastels to draw our creatures, coral, seabeds first and then went over them with a liberal wash of watery, blue paint.





recent work

A couple of recent paintings - 'Irene' & 'Harriet'. Both mixed media on 15x10cm canvas boards.

 

Must, must, must get these listed in my shops.