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.

long time no post!

In y2 the other day we had a go at painting without drawing in pencil first. We drew elephants last week in our sketchbooks so just made the same marks but with a paintbrush. We added a bit of texture by scratching with a cocktail stick.

knit one

Our y3's are currently knitting! Most of them, having mastered the basics are flying along. As their current study theme is to do with cold places I had the brilliant idea (!) of getting them to knit a bobble hat! It's been a struggle but I think we may be getting there.

Meanwhile on my painting board - 'A Close Finish'. Acrylics on paper, roughly A4 size.
Playing around with my 'new', extremely pared down and simplistic style, to see if I could do more than footy players and folk diving! I would more than welcome any feedback.

pugilists

A bit of spare time - so painted up a quick pic of boxers (based on the previous sketches).
18x20cm, acrylics + ink, on paper.

Trying out a new style - even more blockier and abstract than before. 'Red Diver' measures 30x40cm, on canvas.

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!).

colour

The y3's continued with their colour mixing investigations today. By gradually adding one colour to another they were able to create quite subtle variations.

painting

Today the y3's got back into the swing of things artistic by creating colour wheels. They did the usual - mixing primary cols to make secondary ones but then we had a chunk of time left so we decided to use up the rest of our paint by doing some collaborative pieces. Each child began with a sheet of blank paper and was tasked with choosing one colour and painting variations (ie. big, small) of one shape (square, rectangle, circle etc). We then swapped with someone else and used a different colour and a different shape etc. After a few rounds of this we finished them off by adding stripes of a colour not yet used. Without any discussion or dialogue this is one of the pieces that came out of the activity. To my mind it looks very much like a close-up study of a bunch of flowers. What do you reckon?

Summer holiday

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

'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.  

after Rousseau

Today the y2's had a go at recreating their own versions of 'Surprise!' by Henri Rousseau. We changed the tiger for a cheetah and drew, painted and collaged to create our pictures. We only had an hour (!) in which to try and complete them.

flowers

Following on from their flower painting last week, the y1's looked at Van Gogh's iconic work and had a go at painting their own sunflowers.

It was good practice in both colour mixing and brush technique.  

flowers

In y1 today we painted flowers. Unfortunately the weather prevented us doing it 'en plein air' but they remembered what they had seen earlier in the week. We painted the stalks with brushes, after having mixed a green, and the flowers with our fingers! We have some children who need to do things in a very kinaesthetic way. We started off by creating pictures of daisies and then progressed onto wild flower meadows.

                        

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.

                        

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.

drawing

Today the y1's continued their topic about toys by doing some observational drawings of toy cars.

They were encouraged to look carefully and draw what they could see.

We did side, front, back and birds eye views and finished with a 3/4 view.

I don't think this 3/4 drawing of a pick up truck is too bad for a 5/6 year old!

Our y4's have also completed their totems.

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.