today

Pen sketches of mini-beasts in Y2.

 

And 'Greek' mod-roc statues in Y3.

Lollipop stick and wire armatures.

 



yesterday

A bit of wax resist with Y3. Ancient Greek designs which we are going to cut into vases and urns.

 

Watery-paint blown trees and finger print leaves with Y1.

hot

Even robots need to cool off in this weather!

 

recently

In Y6 we have created frontispieces for future Father's day cards, in the style of Paul klee.

 

 

Whilst in Y4 we completed our mosaics by grouting in between the tiles.

A damp sponge wiped off the excess. When dry, we'll give them a protective coat of PVA.

in school

One Y2 class drew postcards of their islands using pens.

 

The other Y2 class painted their clay dinosaurs.

Y5 painted both their compass-drawn flowers (from packets/cereal boxes) and tins (to be used as vases) as part of their recycling studies. We plan to assemble them into finished pieces next week.

leaves & doodles

Y1 have been adding to our 'magical forest' by weaving leaves. These are then being threaded with wire before being wrapped onto the branches with yarn - a laborious process but its all slowly beginning to take shape.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, a few doodles from my sketchbook. Must've been listening to some Sinatra tracks in my head whilst drawing them!

 

 

 

greek & roman

In Y4 we began to create our mosaics following on from last weeks designs. We are using small reconstituted tiles (as our tesserae) that can be cut (carefully) with scissors and glued into place with ordinary PVA glue. Once they are complete and dry we'll grout them.

 

In Y3 we have decorated our 'Ancient Greek' coil pots. We used sharpies so as to get a better and finer line. We might PVA threm to seal everything together, we might not!

drawing

FS2 children did some observational drawing yesterday.  We kept it simple (basic shape, surface texture/detail) as their attention spans and concentration are still developing! 

 

Strawberries....

And pineapples!

Finally, a couple of pics of my completed ceramic roadster.

cars

Some vehicle based pieces that I've been doing of late. The first is a ceramic bodied old-style racing car. Am really pleased with the deep red colour of the body - I used a terracotta clay. Am just painting up the wooden wheels and axles that will finish it off. I decided not to have a 'driver'.

 

These are a couple of acrylic on paper paintings of one of my all-time favourite cars - a 2CV - pottering through picturesque landscapes. I constantly regret the day I parted with mine!

more clay stuff

One Y2 class created dinosaurs yesterday. They pushed, pulled and generally bullied the clay into a shape resembling a stegosaurus. Broken lollipop and cocktail sticks were then added for the plates and tail spikes. We'll paint them once they're dry.

 

 

Meanwhile the other Y2 class have been working on an island theme. We painted our clay thumbpot islands and added a card 'house'. When put together en masse they look a bit like the British gas advert on telly, except that ours are on 'water' and not in the air!

potty

Coil pots with Y3 yesterday to tie in with their Greek project. We used a tube as a former and found it much easier than just trying to coil the  clay 'sausages' free-style as we have done in the past.

 

 

Here they are in the kiln prior to going through a drying and then a firing programme. Some of the children managed to add rims to their pots.

 

 

We won't glaze them as we are after a matt finish and our glazes are all gloss. (Note to self - order some matt glazes!) We'll probably use poster paints to add decoration or even just sharpie pens. The latter might be better to achieve a finer line.

recent stuff

Some recent pieces. The first is in anticipation of 'Le Tour' coming to God's Own County. Some cyclists passing a quaint little country village before tackling a category 1 climb! Acrylics and pencil crayon on paper.

 

 

Doodles from my sketchbook. No prizes for guessing the title of the last one.

watercolours

More controlled painting this week with Y6. Simple watercolour landscapes in the style of Paul Klee. 

 

'River'

Y6 have completed their river piece.

 

 

We decided to hang the fish with wire instead of thread as some of them are quite heavy.

 

Not sure whether it looks better with the added blue wool or not (?). I might put a blue sheet against the wall behind it 'under' the table and a simple riverbank above.

painting

Y6 painted strips of paper to represent water. They used wet on wet, spatter and combing techniques.

They are intended for a composite piece that incorporates their ceramic ducks and fish.

 



Meanwhile Y5 took inspiration from Mondrian and Paul Klee to paint 'green' abstract images. These will be used back to back to create leaves for the magic forest that Y1 are currently putting together.

no time to breathe!

A very busy last couple of days in school. In FS1 they are currently looking at 'when I grow up...'. So we did drawings that literally grew up!

 

 

In Y3 they've just started studying the Ancient Greeks so we drew Greek warriors and mythical beasts. Next week we'll be making pots using the coil method, which we'll then decorate with similar images.

 Today, Y1 painted some huge papier mache trees. We completed 5 in all - they will form part of a magical forest (hence the strange colouring!).

And finally, in Y2 we drew some dinosaurs.

Oh and we've also been making clay islands (based on an upturned thumb pot) but I didn't manage to get any pics! Nearly the weekend - might have a chance to recharge!