Summer holiday

http://www.accessart.org.uk/the-accessart-share-a-bird-project/

timeline

Today I've been busy putting up an art timeline around the room. I've tried to place the artists according to the timespan during which they were active - its not precise! Its simply to inform the children of the approximate era in which certain well-known artists plied their trade.

 

The timeline stretches around 3 sides of the room beginning with the Romans at 0! I'm not going to extend it BC but am putting up pictures that represent Greek, Egyptian and 'cave' art in the windows on the 4th side, immediately prior to the timeline start (if that makes sense).
It all took far longer than I thought it would - having to print out each artists label, find suitable artworks, print them out, trim them and then finally blu-tack it all in place! Tomorrow I'm planning to unpack, assemble and become familiar with the new kiln!

auction pt3

The celeb auction finished today - we raised 450 euros! The highest bid was for a signed sketch by Stirling Moss & his son. The whole exhibition was highly praised - lots of quality pieces. Will leave it up for a couple of days as we are being 'inspected'!

artwork auction

Snapped a few of the celeb artworks that are in the auction that runs alongside the art exhibition this week. These are by Jacqueline Wilson, Bob Hoskins,Frankie Dettori, Korky Paul and Jan Pienkowski - can you guess who created which one? (No prizes!).

art week 2

More pics from our Big Arts Week - bits of the exhibition we're holding this next week.

This is an image that was split and then colured separately before being pieced together again.

I decided to display it in isolation on one large wall - not sure whether it works though.

On Friday my class looked at the work of Escher. We created tessellations in his style;

One of the younger classes experimented with 'Jackson Pollack';



Another Pollack inspired piece;

But done a very large scale - it fills a wall! I'm half expecting to walk in on Monday and find it on the floor as it was a bit of a devil to put up. They did well to dodge the rain on Friday to create this piece. Great fun was seen to be had squirting paint straight from the bottle, rolling wheels covered in paint and generally dripping and splodging. This pic was taken from my classroom window ;

story progress

Have been playing around with the idea of 4 stories running at the same time on the same page. 1st draft of a well known traditional tale has been put to paper and a colour sketch of the first page illustration roughed out - can you tell which story it is? Would really appreciate any comments on the concept - not sure if I'm putting too much thought and effort into a non-starter or not.

austerity pic

Just wondered what folk thought of this idea - here very roughly sketched/collaged out. One picture that can be hung/displayed 4 different ways.
Do they look sufficiently different each time? Does the idea have commercial potential, especially in these 'austere' times?
I would really appreciate any feedback whatsoever (even if it's to shoot it down in flames!).

'Ices'

'Duck pond'

'Play Park'


'High Street'

People could simply hang them a different way up to ring the changes- 4 pics for the price of 1!

cards

Hand-drawn and coloured cards - just as quick for me as all the faff that goes with printing them. I'm planning to sell these in my shop, in packs of two.

portraits

Y5 this week had a go at drawing realistic portraits. Their initial 'before' sketches are in the top corner and the 'after instruction' larger. Looks like they listened - they were certainly impressed with the results.

we painted today

This afternoon my new class and I painted. We started out with tree-like silhouettes which we then abstracted into patterns and designs. It was nice to spend time like this before the onslaught of chasing targets and levels.

book proposal

Have put a drawing book proposal into the ether - well, e-mailed it to a few agents anyway. I've developed a unique and very simple method for creating easily recognisable pictures and have got to the point where I am tentatively pushing it out there. Probably way above my humble station but you never know.

exhibition

Today we had a temporary, informal gallery of work that was produced throughout the school during last weeks Art Week. Different year groups looked at Mexico, Ancient Egypt, Australia, Africa, India - we could only cover things superficially but hopefully some children went away inspired - we shall certainly be going over things in more depth next school year.

School hols are almost upon us, so there will probably be no more posts until the beginning of september as I'll be down in deepest, darkest France with no internet connection.

Have a great Summer!

A is for African animals

Using the 'A is for Art' concept I 'invented' (?) - we drew African animals in our sketchbooks today. All pics started out as letter 'A's - we just detailed them as appropriate to represent each animal. The children were amazed to find that they could easily and quickly draw something that looked reasonably like what it was supposed to.

aboriginal artwork

Australia today - with a specific look at Aboriginal art. We then attempted to paint our own pics using cotton buds (less messy than fingers!) to apply the paint onto coloured sugar paper.

Our art club sculpture is finally nearing completion.

arty science

Today, post-inspection we went a bit creative in science. To cover forces, pushes & pulls - we applied the same to a lump of clay each. We'll let them dry and then paint (or not). It enabled the kinaesthetic learners to engage a bit more and allowed the creatives to explore things away from the printed page. Oh, and we thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

Almost coral-like this piece. I can feel some 'temporary' metal paperclip sculptures coming on when we get to using magnets.

doodlz

Some more quick sketches - anyone for tennis?

'bot leapfrog

A quick doodle I did and then stuck into my notebook. A couple o' 'bots just having a good time.

automata

In y3 we have been having a go at constructing paper automata. It ties in with our Victorian topic and bridges the gap between Art and Design Technology. We are using a simple cam mechanism.

art club

Today in art club we made paper maquettes as a prelude to creating life-size sculptures. I think we may be a tad ambitious in what we hope to achieve!

Our aim is to use papier mache over a thick card support. We went for a gymnastic theme - wish us luck.

how to booklet

Just dug out a 'how to' booklet I produced a while back. It details a very simple method whereby anyone can draw easily recognisable pictures. It doesn't promise to turn you into the next Leonardo but it will equip you with a way of going beyond stick-men.

Shortly to be in my Etsy shop.