Visual Arts

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2021, and welcome your input:

Danielle Haines (Visual Arts)  Danielle.Haines@education.vic.gov.au 

Welcome, Wominjeka, Yokoso, or, Welcome, welcome, welcome!

Over the holidays Paula Lee and myself worked hard to install the sculptural project the year 5/6 art club have been working on during Term Two. While there are still some finishing touches to do, I hope you agree that they are looking fantastic and are a bright welcome to our school entrance. 

Term Three sees the introduction of the selfie stick in visual arts. Some of you may have already received a notification and wondered what it was all about. This is an opportunity for students to peg their work if they are feeling really proud of it so I can send you a picture through compass to share in their amazing work on the day they make it.  This process helps to build self-confidence in their own artwork and encourages them to think about how they feel about their work. 

An Overview of our Learning

Semester 2 continues our exploration of the elements of art with a focus on form. Form as an element of art is three-dimensional and encloses space. Like a shape, a form has length and width, but it also has depth so our projects will have a focus on sculptural art and craft. 

As we continue to practice for our school production of The Wizard of Oz, foundation students created a tin man in week one by constructing a head with paddlepop sticks, painting, cutting and pasting. Each one is unique, with students adding elements and personalities of their own.

Term Three begins to explore form and sculpture using a variety of materials. Students will investigate the works of Alexander Calder and Will Kurtz to stir their imaginations and inspire their own work. 

Week one saw The Wizard of Oz filling the art room with students creating scarecrows from paper plates. This craft activity incorporates painting, construction and drawing to come together as an adorable scarecrow. 

This week the Year Two students made paper sculpture roads. After exploring different ways of engineering paper to stand up and become three-dimensional, students took this knowledge and applied it to their artwork, creating tabs, spirals, curves, zig zags and going over and under. It was fantastic to see all the experimentation going on.

Term Three starts to see students exploring a variety of materials to weave and sculpt to create artworks with form. They continue to discuss how artists express ideas and use materials, techniques and visual conventions in artworks by investigating artists such as Terri Friedman, Pete Cromer and other artists from Australia and around the world. 

Week One saw Year Three/Four students hard at work rehearsing and making props for production. Students have been working on a cowardly lion craft to add to our cast of characters created across the year levels by painting paper plates and curling paper to create a three-dimensional mane.

What a tumultuous term it's been so far. Year Five/Six students have been completing their David Hockney landscapes as well as designing posters for production. Students examined movie poster design and tools designers use to capture your attention. We discussed common colour schemes used in particular movie genres or the way characters are represented to communicate the style. Students worked in pairs or solo to design advertising posters for The Wizard of Oz production. After brainstorming ideas they moved to the research step of the design process. Using ipads to source images where needed to either print and collage, trace or draw free hand. These will be completed in the coming weeks and displayed as advertising around the school.

The rest of the term will focus on form and sculpture, with our projects turning to a variety of mediums to create artworks with three-dimension and structure.