Specialist Report - Visual Arts

Achilles – Foundation

During Visual Arts, in the Achilles Community we have been focusing our artworks on the different Elements of Art. We looked at colour by creating a tissue paper collage of a star, after reading the book “Draw Me a Star”, by Eric Carle. Using PVA we painted over the top of the tissue paper. We were very curious about how the paper still stuck, even though we painted on top! Some of us worked out it was because the tissue paper is so thin, so it goes through. We then cut out our star, added it to black paper and had a go at drawing our own stars. Our finished collages look really nice, and we look forward to bringing them home to share! 

We also explored lines and created a line sculpture using coloured strips of paper. It was challenging trying to fold, twist and curl the paper to create different types of lines. We were really proud of our line sculpture artworks and have taken them home to share. At the moment we have also been exploring different textures. We’ve had lots of fun putting different materials under our paper to see what patterns they create in our work! We have made ‘texture monsters’ that will become a display in the gym. 

Xenica & Argus – Year 1/2s

During the last few weeks of Visual Arts, in Xenica and Argus we have explored different artists and then created our own, inspired by what we noticed. Our biggest focus has been on shapes. We have drawn, painted and collaged, using shapes to create our artworks. 

The first artists we looked at was Paul Klee. He made colourful cities and castles using lots of shapes. We talked about all the different shapes we could use, looked at images of real buildings and then drew our own cityscapes. It was great to see how different they all looked. We then began looking at warm and cool colours, before adding colour to our work with water coloured paint.  

These are now on display in the Golden Sun Centre. We are really proud of all our work. 

In Xenica & Argus we have also been learning about the artist Henri Matisse, who loved to paint but as he got older found that he was too sick to continue. We thought that this was sad at first, but then we learnt that he discovered a new way to create art. He loved this new way even more than painting! So, what was it? He learnt to cut out amazing shapes and create paper collages. He enjoyed this so much that he wished he had started sooner. He missed being able to go outside to see his garden, so his favourite thing to collage was a garden of his own! 

Inspired by Matisse and his paper garden collages, we experimented with paper and made our own! We discussed what would be in our own gardens. Our gardens were anything that we wanted them to be. As you can probably tell by looking at our finished artworks, all of us have very different ideas about our garden!

We created our gardens using stickers! The paper had a backing that could be peeled off and then we could stick our shapes right on to the background! It was a little tricky at first, but we liked using stickers and had lots of fun! 

We hope you enjoy our gardens as much as we do! 

Ulysses – Year 3/4s

In Ulysses we have been working on creating a sculpture of our name from paper and cardboard. First, we designed our letters, which we were encouraged to fill using the Art Elements of Line, Shape and Pattern. We wanted to personalise our letters and make them about ourselves, so we used ideas, images and colours that we felt are important. 

Once we had neatly coloured our letters with markers and pencils, we were up to the construction stage. We had to create a base, to stick our letters too and described this as being like the floor! Then we used the hot glue gun to make our letters stand. We had to carefully think about where each letter was going to sit so that we could still read our name. It was important for us to plan for our work before we glued our letters down, because we also had to balance our letters so our sculpture wouldn’t fall over. Some of our sculptures are finished, but most of us are still in the construction stages! We can’t wait to share our finished work. 

Icarus – Year 5/6s

In Icarus we have been exploring the artwork of the Australian artist Pete Cromer. He makes lots of commercialised art; you can find his artworks on mugs and drink bottles (as well as lots of other things). We had a close look at his artworks and shared what we could see, what we thought and what we were wondering. We noticed that he used lots of shapes and colour and that many of his artworks were Australian animals. Using our visual diary and books from the library, we chose an Australian animal and came up with a similar styled design of our own. Now we are in the process of creating them. 

Pete Cromer’s work is water coloured paper cut and collaged into animals. As we discovered when we were looking at Cromer’s work, it’s not always obvious (to us anyway!) which animal he is creating. Colours are important in his work, so we had to think about what colours we were using and how they will help the audience decipher what animal we are creating. So far, we have experimented with water coloured paint, different paper and brushes to create interesting effects.

Currently we are in the process of cutting out shapes to collage our animal. We are putting a lot of effort into these, so we are excited to see how they come out. If we finish these by the end of the term, we’ve been asked to display them at Arecare Criagiburn; which is pretty exciting, it will be a very special gallery display! 

Suzie - Visual Arts Teacher