Visual Arts

Term 4 2022 was truly jam-packed! Children in all levels were very busy making, creating, exploring and experimenting. 

Prep, Grade 1 and 2:

In the lead up to Halloween, children participated in a 3D paper sculpture workshop where they could choose to make a spider or a pumpkin. They demonstrated folding, cutting, gluing and construction whilst developing and practicing their fine motor skills. 

Prep students completed a series of portrait lessons, reading Todd Parr's book Be Who You Are and building faces out of different coloured paper facial features in the style of Parr's illustrations. We also did a guided drawing workshop where students had to carefully follow instructions step by step to create a Joan Miro inspired portrait based on Miro's painting Sun Eater. 

Grade 1s and 2s learned about the Māori traditional symbol called a Koru spiral and the significance of the fern shape and spiral in their culture. Together, we found out about how the Koru represents new life and beginnings. Using the art of Raewynn Harris as inspiration, the children practiced drawing spiral shapes and learned about positive and negative shapes and spaces by filling in their drawing with warm and cool coloured water colour paints. 

Preps, 1s and 2s then moved onto viewing Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman painting. We also reviewed the 6 core emotions from MindfullAus and created a Picasso style portrait where students selected 2 of emotions and the matching colours to draw and paint. As an introduction children played "Roll-a-Picasso" to practice drawing faces using Picasso's interesting Cubism style. 

Grade 3 and 4:

Students in these grades learned about Aboriginal dot paintings and the significance a history of this style of art. They used paint sticks to form a background and then the back of a paint brush to place dots on the piece using the techniques and ideas of First Nations artists Nardurna and Loretta Eagan. They added to their artwork by creating semi-3D Australian animal figures using layers of paper and cardboard. 

Later in the term, we learned about coral reef biomes and viewed and compared pieces of art by First Nations artist Melanie Hava to that of Sydney artist Ken Done. Students explored painting techniques to creating a blended water background, worked with paint sticks and then drew sea creatures, coral and seaweed to bring together this fabulous mixed media piece. 

Grade 5 and 6:

Students completed their Day of the Dead sugar skull paintings in time for the writer's festival. They enjoyed learning about the Mexican traditions and customs. 

Grade 5 students embarked on a mixed-media exploration inspired by Vincant van Gogh's The Starry Night, with a focus on printmaking using our new gel printing presses. Student created prints with two 'passes' to create two layers of print work featuring cypress trees as is a common theme in van Gogh's artwork. They then worked with pastels, metallic markers, gel pens and glitter glue to build layers and texture into the piece. Students chose the best ways to frame their work and decorated the frame to match. 

Grade 6 students worked diligently to complete a special self-portrait to be displayed at their graduation ceremony. Thet traced their own faces carefully into a piece of acetate, painted the reverse in either a warm or cool colour scheme, and designed a background in the opposite temperature colours. They constructed a frame using precise measurements and assembled their three items (acetate, background and original portrait) before decorating their frame to celebrate their milestone of finishing primary school. Congratulations! 

All classes have completed some paper collage work at the very end of term - happy holidays everyone!