Visual Arts News
Prep
The prep students revisited the story of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” in visual arts. They used watercolours to paint diffusing paper, focusing on mixing colours and creating patterns. This paper formed the wings of a butterfly sculpture once a peg and pipe cleaners were added. The preps really enjoyed this art experience and now have a caterpillar and butterfly sculpture inspired by the same story. In the following week, the students revisited primary colours and listened to another picture story book: “The very helpful hedgehog”. They followed a guided drawing of a hedgehog and used primary coloured paint slicks to add spikes to their creature.
Grade 1& 2
A couple of weeks ago, the grade ones and twos learnt about llamas and their traditional costumes and drew their own llama with added embellishments. In the following week, some of the grade twos cut slits into their piece so that they could weave a woollen blanket onto their llama. This was a challenging new technique for most students and we are so proud of their perseverance and resilience. Other classes used special paper to create etchings, engraving underwater scenes into their paper. Last week, the grade one and two students learnt about koru (coils on fern plants), which are a symbol used in Māori art, often symbolising new life, growth, strength and peace. The students drew their own koru designs, focusing on the element of line, and began colouring their work with pastels or crayons.
Grade 3 & 4
The grade three and four students have been exploring bush medicine leaf artworks by Indigenous Australian artist Rosemary Pitjara. In the first week, students used either warm or cool coloured watercolours to paint a colourful piece. In the following week, the students cut out leaf shapes from this piece and glued them onto a black background. Their aim was to create positive and negative space, as well as creating natural movement inspired by Rosemary’s work.
Grade 5 & 6
Last week, the grade five and six students continued their graffiti inspired artwork by adding symbols to their work. They discussed and added symbols to represent their likes, identity or personality. This week, students learnt about Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. After exploring a range of the the artists’ works, the students created a Yayoi-inspired collage. The fives and sixes made choices about colours and subject matter, and created patterns inspired by Yoyoi’s famous paintings, sculptures and installations.
Art club
In recent weeks, the art club students explored a range of mediums and techniques to further develop their visual arts skills. Here are some examples of their etchings, chalk pastel jellyfish and oil pastel artworks:
