Specialists

In the Art room…

Well, we have certainly hit the ground running this year with lots of learning already happening in the Art room.

We began the year with a collaborative task that involved every student in our school creating a monochromatic self-portrait. These are almost ready to be displayed and we are all looking forward to seeing them altogether. 

The Grade Preps have been looking at Primary colours and artist, Piet Mondrian’s work. We have used his art to influence our own creative pieces. We have talked about shapes such as squares and rectangles, practised our cutting and pasting and we even managed some printmaking in our creation of lines. So much fun and learning to be had!

In Grade 1, our focus has been on artist Pablo Picasso (not Pablo “Pistachio” as some may have you believe!). We have looked at Cubism and begun to draw our own images to reflect this art movement. 

Grade 2 students are absolutely loving the activities presented around artist Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” work. We have explored Gelli plates, painting ‘combs’ and brayers to create a mono print background. We have been inspired by Van Gogh’s use of line in his work to create ‘movement’ in our own background pieces. Later this term we will also investigate embossing aluminum foil!

The Grade 3 students have instead listened to a story about artist Keith Haring and studied some of his character drawings. They then practised their own before choosing four poses they wish to represent. We have also started to discuss the effective use of Complementary and Contrasting colours in our work.

In Grade 4 we are studying the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat! We’ve been creating some very interesting backgrounds using different mediums. And yes, there was great excitement when students were allowed to ‘scribble’ some areas in crayon. As one student exclaimed, “We haven’t been allowed to do this since kinder!”. (SSSHHhh…we can sometimes get away with different things in the Art room.)

The Grade 5 students have been working on the art movement of Surrealism and looking at artist, “Mr. Surrealism” himself, Salvador Dali’s work. Strange but true! The students are currently working on their sketching and drawing skills and will soon practise the art of blending using chalk pastels. This term, the Grade 5 classes will also be incorporating a number of different mediums into a final Surrealist art piece. 

And finally, our Grade 6 students have been looking at the connection between artists Robert and Sonia Delaunay and the short-lived art movement of Orphism. The students are also making connections with contemporary Brazilian artist, Beatriz Milhazes and artists such as Henri Matisse and Piet Mondrian. We are learning about the more intricate workings of Collage and abstract art that depicts ‘movement’. Students are showing creative thinking in the way they arrange their shapes and colours and are beginning to make personal choices in their final displays. 

I am feeling exceptionally proud of how all the students are responding to the class tasks and I cannot wait until their work is shared within our school community. 

Finally, I would like to extend a special shout out to my Grade 6 Art Leaders who gave up much of their lunch time play in the first few weeks of school this year to work on the bunting for the Knox festival.

This year’s art project was based on the theme of ‘Dreams.’ 

- What do your dreams look like?

- What are your dreams for Knox?

- What magical places do you visit in your dreams? 

Together the team worked on messages of hope for inclusivity, a greener world, wanting everyone to be kinder and more thoughtful to each other and our planet. 

Did you or your family spot it at the festival? Let us know what you thought!

Mrs. Dabb 

Art Leader