Open Night

I hope you can come and visit the Specialist Unit during our Open Night, this Wednesday 24th May, from 6pm. The Art Room will have some activities for you to explore that combine both Art and Maths. Do you know the name of the artist who mastered the fusion of Maths and Art, specifically tessellations?

Here's a clue with a poster I made to display in our Art Room.

That's right! MC Escher - aren't his drawings fascinating?! Hope to see you during Open Night when you can explore the artwork of MC Escher and his use tessellating shapes.

A little inspiration...

Term 2 in the Art Room | Vincent Van Gogh Exhibition

We have started off the term with lots of exciting projects happening in Art. The projects listed below link in with each year level's integrated topic. Later in the term, each grade from P-6 will be exploring the amazing art of Vincent Van Gogh to tie in with the current exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. There have been lot of excited kiddos (and art teachers!) talking about this exhibition!!

Preps | Nursery Rhymes

Prep students are well underway in creating their mixed media artwork of the Owl and the Pussycat. They are creating an oil pastel and watercolour background, a collaged pea-green boat and developing their drawing skills for their owls and their pussycats.

Grade 1/2 | Aboriginal Studies

We have shared some beautiful books like 'Welcome to Country' by Aunty Joy Murphy, with illustrations by Lisa Kennedy and 'Colours of Australia' by Bronwyn Bancroft. Students are now in the process of creating their own paintings inspired by Aboriginal artists such as Lisa Kennedy and Bronwyn Bancroft.

Grade 3/4 | Geographical Landscapes

We'll be looking at some of the landscapes painted by Van Gogh later in the term, but so far we have enjoyed learning about Canadian artists Emily Carr and Ted Harrison. We have particularly focused on their use of space (hear, near and far) and atmospheric perspective in their artworks. Students are currently working on their own landscape painting inspired by Ted Harrison's artworks of the Yukon Territories. We studied many of his artworks while reading the book 'A Brush Full of Colour'.

Grade 5/6 | Mindfulness through Art Journalling

The 5/6 students began the term with a stand-alone lesson on sketching the buildings and surrounds of Marlborough Primary School. The Heathmont Historical Society is planning on publishing a book about Heathmont and invited students to sketch MPS. They will be choosing 1-3 sketches to be included in their book, so stay tuned to hear whose sketches will be published!

While studying the topic of 'Healthy Bodies Healthy Minds', students are working on creating their own Mindfulness Art Journal. We are looking at ways that art therapy can help us to relax and promote mindfulness. Students have created their journals out of brown paper bags and these will be filled with journalling and  a variety of mixed media techniques such as stamping, collage, calligraphy, paper crafts, doodling, mandala drawing and layering textured papers that we print in class on our Gelli Plates.

Please stay tuned for more posts with photos of the students' work once they have completed these projects. And if you happen to be visiting the Van Gogh exhibition - ENJOY!!!

Grade 5/6 ~ Chinese Willow Pattern Plates

The Grade 5/6 Asia focus this year is China and we shared the story of the Willow Pattern together in Art. So many students recognised  this distinct blue and white plate! After we shared the story, many students went home and checked theirs a bit more closely to see if it actually was the willow pattern. After reading the story, they knew the exact details to look for (the doves, apple trees, pagoda, boat, bridge etc)..

To create our own willow pattern plates, students sketched their designs in their art journals and then onto white paper plates. We used tints and shades of blue acrylic to then paint our monochromatic designs. Great work Grades 5 and 6!

Grade 5/6 ~ Hokusai's Great Wave

To complement the Grade 5/6 topic of Natural Disasters, we shared the book 'The Great Wave' and talked about the Japanese artist, Hokusai and his famous wood block print 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa'.

We had a guided drawing session together where we learned how to draw the crest and white caps of the waves. We discussed the element of space, adding a horizon line and making the distinction between the foreground and background. Students drew directly onto their white paper with black oil pastel, encouraging them to draw 'big' and not worry about mistakes and having to rub out pencil lines. Some students chose to add Mt Fuji in the background as an active volcano or as a snow capped mountain. Some students also chose to include a boat to add to the sense of movement in their painting.

Tempera paint blocks were used to with plenty of water on our brushes and as a final touch, students splattered white acrylic paint to create a sense of the splashing white foam of the waves. Final artworks are on display in the office and they look fantastic!

Grade 3/4 ~ The Cat in the Hat

"I know it is wet

And the sun is not sunny.

But we can have 

Lots of good fun that is funny!"

Grade 3/4s were really engaged in their guided drawing sessions where they learned how to draw the Cat in the Hat in the style of Dr Seuss. We focused on the way he used cross-hatching to add contrast and shading in his illustrations.

Students enjoyed using the black fine liners for this activity as well as making a glittery background with coloured glitter glue. When other classes walked in and saw them on display, they thought the Cats were photocopies, not drawings! Well done Grade 3 and 4 - outstanding work!

P-2 ~ Primary and Secondary colour icy-poles

The Prep-2 students had a great time mixing colours in recent lessons. We watched this fun video below and also shared the book 'Mix It Up' by Herve Tullet.

Students really enjoyed mixing the primary colours on their palettes to make secondary colours. They painted the primary colours on the tops and bottoms of their icy-poles and painted the middle with the corresponding secondary colour.

Once dry, they cut out the icy-poles and stuck them down onto their decorated background - complete with real icy-pole sticks!! They look so bright and colourful (and delicious on these hot days!!) And yes, the primary colours song has been stuck in our head for days :)