recent work

Managed to find some time to explore variations on a theme. Instead of full colour paintings/drawings, I tried to strip them back to a bare minimum, using colour for the backgrounds only. Particularly like the skateboarder.

cityscapes

Today the y6's followed up their work on perspective/cityscapes by looking at the work of James Rizzi. They then started to try and draw a cityscape in a similar style.  

And here's to hoping that tomorrow's game is a classic (and that England win!).

cityscapes & footy

The y6's followed up their linear perspective work from last week by drawing 3d cityscapes using squared dotty paper!

And I managed to find some time to daub a few more footy paintings. Still not done anything about trying to sell them though!

'varnishing day'

Managed to find sometime at the end of yesterday to 'varnish' (or matte as they say in America?) all of my recent footy/rugby paintings.

Now to decide what I'm going to do with them - list in my shops, think about joining 'Artfinder' (has anyone got any experience of this ?), create a Facebook page wherefrom I can advertise them for sale or try and approach small galleries!
Any advice welcome.

painting

Currently on my painting table are 5 football/rugby pics that will eventually depict representations of various teams.  

finished

The paintings are now finished. I seem to be accumulating quite a few footy paintings - I must get around to putting them in my Folksy shop.

All are 18 x 24cm, mixed media on canvas board.

                        

A is for...

 Today the y2's drew cheetahs. They have been learning all about them in class and did a 'before' picture (top left hand corner). They then followed simple, step by step instructions to enable them to draw more easily recognisable images. We did both standing and running versions. We even detailed the faces. 

Meanwhile, progress on my 'painting' table.

vehicles

In y1 today we continued drawing vehicles but this time in '3D'. We took it step by step, using squared paper and simple shapes. We drew vans, trucks, buses and cars.

Not bad for 5/6 year olds.

Another painting - 'Derby'.

Possibly City vs Utd. Canvas board, 18 x 24cm, acrylics. £30 (p&p free worldwide) would see this adorning your wall! If interested please comment. Should you wish to commission a footy pic of your favourite team please let me know.

another

Another finished painting. This time a Scottish rugby player in full flight. 

Canvas board, acrylics, 10 x 15cm.

£20 (p&p free worldwide!).

Please comment if you'd like it.

flames

The y2's did a bit of colour mixing today, as a precursor to creating collage pieces that represent the fire of London.

We varied the proportions of red and yellow to get darker and lighter oranges.

Meanwhile, here's one of my paintings from last week, all finished.

It's on canvas board, painted using acrylics and measures 18 x 24cm. If anyone is interested in buying it, £30 would secure (p&p free - anywhere in the world)! Please comment sold.

in progress

Decided to repurpose some canvas boards with footy & rugby paintings.

The peg-clipped pieces of paper are to remind me which team they are supposed to represent. The one on the left is a painted version of the sketch in the previous post. Foot and specs included for scale purposes!

totems

Y4 are looking at 'The Americas'. Over the last couple of weeks they've been collaboratively making totems. They've each created a four-sided segment that will assemble into a vertical structure (using a thick card roll as an internal, central support). Today we finished off painting them. Each panel was designed to represent them in some way - their personality, hobbies/interests etc.

Meanwhile a couple of pieces from me. A sketch, 'off to the match' ....

.....and my latest automaton to leave the workbench. The birds move up and down via cams and give the impression of flying - I did contemplate making the wings flap but decided the scale was too small (nothing to do with the fact that my skills weren't up to it!).

ceramics 4

This term I'm running a ceramic club. For the first project the children made simple 'sitting' slab figures.

We bisque fired them and then used acrylics to decorate. In the time available it would have been very difficult to glaze them to the same level of detail. For our next pieces I've promised that we will be using glazes!

We might 'varnish' them for added protection.

bunting

Managed to make up the collaborative paintings from the other day into a couple of lengths of bunting. Each is about 2m long.

At the minute they're strung up over the windows in the art room and definately brighten up the dismal, grey views of the weather outside.

collaborative painting

Finally managed to do some 'real' art this week with the children. In y5 today they had a go at creating some paintings as a whole group. They each had one colour and were instructed to paint half of the paper. 

The 'painting' was then passed to another person who, using their colour, painted half of the remaining space. And so on and so on until the whole sheet was blocked in.

They then started to add stripes, again passing the paintings around. We had taped the sheets to thin boards to both keep the paper flat and aid easy movement.

Next, they added spots (using cotton buds to apply the paint.

To further enhance the pieces, the children used felt pens to draw lines, stars etc.

The resulting pieces were a riot of colour and pattern. 32 children = 32 abstract artworks.

 We're thinking of using them to create lengths of bunting.

mural completed

Here's a pic of the 'finished' mural I've been painting on and off for the last few weeks. Not ecstatically happy with it but time ran out on me to do a more detailed job. It looks good from a distance and does brighten the wall up!

Hopefully the children will enjoy spotting all the different creatures, counting the red/white/yellow flowers, as well as discovering which ladybird has the most spots etc.

Poppies

Inspired by the poppies at the Tower of London we've started to make some very simplified ones of our own. The intention is to 'plant' them as an avenue to be walked through by the parents attending our Remembrance service in November. Afterwards we hope people will offer a donation in order to take one home with them.

Today's painting.

painting & Poland

This weekend saw my wife and I venturing to Poland to stock up on pottery. Whilst there we visited the site of the POW camp from where the 'Great Escape' took place - stalag luft 3. There's a small museum with artefacts and poignant information regarding the fate of the escapees. There's also a reconstruction of a section of tunnel and a replica of one of the huts.

We didn't manage to get as far as the actual site of 'Harry' as time was short but hope to return early next year. 

Currently on my painting table - a small (12x12 cm) mixed media piece. 

more Polish girls

The 'new' style didn't go down too well so have painted up a couple more that might be more agreeable! Again acrylics but this time on canvas board so they can either be hung as is or propped on a shelf. 

 

recent stuff

A few recent pieces. First up a ceramic abstract figure designed to sit on a shelf. My wife sells Polish pottery so I painted it to tie in with a blue/white colour scheme. The hair is handmade twine tied with a ribbon. The spots are painted on after firing as they have previously 'run' when I've tried to do them with glazes.

 

 
Next, a painting (acrylic on paper, roughly A4 size) with a similar theme. This will hopefully, once framed, end up on the 'shop' wall - maybe even with a very modest price tab!

Finally, another footy piece - 'Off to the Match'. Again acrylics on heavyweight paper.