Visual Arts News
Prep
Recently in Visual Arts, the prep students listened to the Aboriginal dreamtime story, “The Rainbow Serpent”. After also reviewing the colours of the rainbow, they used a new material called “maize building noodles” to create their own rainbow serpent sculpture. The maize noodles need a small amount of water to join together, so students carefully assembled their snake, then added eyes and a matchstick tongue. They also created a background for their snake to rest on. In the following week, the preps read the picture story book, “The Rainbow Fish”. After discussing the setting of the story, the students drew an ocean scene in crayon, including features such as sand, rocks, seaweed and shells. They then used cool-coloured watercolour paints to wash over their details and create an ocean background. The students will continue with this project next week by collaging a rainbow fish onto their work.
Grade 1 & 2
The grade one and two students recently learnt about the colour wheel. Using watercolour paints, students created their own colour wheel, blending paint between each primary colour (red, yellow and blue) to create the secondary colours (orange, green and purple). In the following week, the students followed a guided drawing of a lion face, which they then painted using paint slicks. They cut and collaged the face onto their colour wheel from the previous week, so that the lion could have a rainbow mane. Some classes added extra texture to their manes using coloured paint slicks. Check out their amazing creations!
Grade 3 & 4
Recently, the grade threes and fours learnt about opals. After learning about these gemstones and the wide spectrum of colours they display, the students used watercolours to paint a background of opal-inspired colour fragments. The students were careful not to blend the colours together too much as they painted these backgrounds. The next week, the students drew organic opal shapes, then used black acrylic paint or paint slick to fill in the negative space around their shapes. As a result, the students produced beautiful paintings of eye-catching opals on a black background. Here are a few examples – like real opals the colour fragments vary between each piece.
Grade 5 & 6
The grade five and six students have been focusing on different projects over the last two weeks. Some classes learned how to use warm and cool colours intentionally in their work. These students explored coastal cottage artworks by Jessica Hogarth and discussed her used of line and shape. They drew a town/cottage scene by drawing at least two rows of buildings. The students then divided their work in half vertically. On each side they used either “warm” or “cool” coloured pencils to outline their work, then used watercolour paints to complete these artworks. Other classes worked on creating a sculpture inspired by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Yayoi is well known for her contemporary artworks, which often feature dots. Using her sculptures and installations as inspiration, the students created a dotted background on coloured card. They used black paper magi-clay to sculpt an object (mushroom, flower, pumpkin etc.), then used coloured magi-clay to add more dots to their work.
