Whole School Art Project July 2024

Nursery 

Year 1/2 RH

In Year 1/2 we learned about the dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh who painted portraits and lanscapes using watercolours and oil paints. We analysed his famous ‘sunflowers’ painting and recreated it using watercolours and oil pastels. Look at our amazing work!

Pupil Voice

‘I enjoyed using the watercolours to create the background. The more water you use the lighter the colour is’- Zofia

‘It was interesting learning about an artist from a different country!’- Victoria

‘I liked using the oil pastels because they made bright colours’- Ryan 

Year 2

Year 2 looked at the British artist Sonia Boyce. We looked at some of her art work called ‘Memory Postcards’ and discussed our favourite memories. We looked at the colours and textures she uses in her art work and created our own memory postcards. The children had brilliant ideas and worked really well to create them!

“I enjoyed making this picture because there were lots of colours to choose from.” – Thea

“I made this to show me and my friends when I first started at this school.” – Dunja

“This is about my dogs and when I got them. I have shown their different colours in the picture.” – Robyn

Year 3JL

Year 3 looked at the French artist, Henri Matisse. Matisse created brightly coloured collages to make people feel happy. He used scissors to cut out shapes, animals, leaves, dancers and flowers and then arranged them on the paper. We concentrated very hard to cut out our shapes carefully and even found that scraps of paper were useful!

Pupil Voice

Kieron – I liked that we made unique patterns. We could go wild with the different shapes.

Joey – I liked the colours. They were vibrant and eye-catching.

Alayna – We learned other techniques rather than drawing.

Deacon – I liked cutting the shapes as it was different and fun.

Robyn – We used our imagination to create our art work.

Year 3/4 AB

3/4 AB enjoyed art week this year. We were inspired by Pablo Picasso and his cubism work. We took photographs of the children and used these images to create some excellent pieces of art work by combining the photos with drawings. We used lots of exciting colours to add interesting detail to our work.

Pupil voice:

“We made shapes and could draw different emotions. It was good, I made cool accessories.” – Willow

“We made funny pictures using funny smiles. I liked it.” – Andrew

Year 4CB

Inspired by our class text, The Boy at the Back of the Class, we created Islamic inspired geometric tiles. Children explored famous Islamic structures and researched why geometric prints are so prominent in Islamic art. In maths, we created geometric and symmetrical patterns and then used these skills to create our very own tiles.

Year 5AC

In 5AC, we have focused on New Zealand and the art of the Māori (the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand). The children enjoyed learning about the six stand out symbols and explored the different Masks (known as ‘Ta-moko’) created by the Māori which were originally tattoos made by carving into the skin and colouring with soot. They were made to look fierce to scare enemies away and concentrated on one colour (usually red) with black and white. The children then designed and created their own Māori inspired masks focusing on creating symmetrical designs which incorporated the symbols they learned about.

Year 5KP

In year 5 we have been focusing on the art and culture of Mexico. We studied Frida Kahlo and her art before looking at the Mexican celebration of Dia de muertos (the Day of the Dead) during which life is celebrated and ancestors are honoured. We looked at the tradition of sugar skulls and decided to make our own from clay. We used UV reactive glow in the dark paint to give them an eye-catching effect!

Pupil Voice

“It was really fun that we got to design using the bright colours. My favourite part was the end results!” – Sydnie.

“I like that when you take them home they will glow in the dark too,” – Robbie.

“I loved making things out of clay and learning about Frida Kahlo and her self portraits,” – Amelia.

“I enjoyed art week. I want to be an artist when I’m older. I enjoyed making and painting the sugar skulls!” – Sophie.

Whole School Art Project July 2023

Did you know that the majority of the streets surrounding our school are named after artists? As a whole school, each class chose one of these artists and learned about our local community and how it links to the art world.

Reception

In Reception we focussed on the the work of Auguste Rodin. We looked at pictures of some of the sculptures that he made and decided what we liked about them. We then made our own sculptures thinking about how we could portray different emotions.

Pupil Voice

‘Rodin was born over two hundred years ago. I like his sculpture called ‘The Thinker’. He was good at working with clay’ –  David

‘I really liked working with the clay and made it into a face that looked like a monkey. I made it happy!’ – Rayyan

‘Rodin liked working with clay and stone. I tried hard to pinch the clay and roll the eyes’. – Jasmine -Jay

Year 1

We looked at the work of John Constable – particularly the landscapes of places that were important to him. We discussed places that were important to us and the children decided that they wanted to paint a landscape using watercolour paints using the key stage one yard as a focus. First, the children used pencil to sketch the background and then used watercolour paints to define the clouds, sky, trees and yard. Next, the children used coloured pencils to add more details. The children used pencils to imitate the techniques that John Constable used with oil paints.

Pupil Voice

Lexi: “I liked the fluffy clouds.”

Robyn: “Our school yard and field is important to us and we painted it using watercolours.”

Roman: ‘I used different greens and I mixed some up for the trees.’

Year 2 RH

During art week, Year 2RH have been learning about one of Britain’s most famous artists from the 20th century called LS Lowry. The children could not believe that Lowry Gardens in Whiteleas was named after a famous artist! We began by researching Lowry and finding out about his past. We learned that Lowry enjoyed painting industrial scenes using matchstick characters as he liked to paint and draw things that he saw around the city while he was working. The children then looked at the painting ‘The Mission Room’ and recreated it using mixed media. They were very proud of their finished pieces!

Pupil Voice

I liked art week because we used the paints – Spencer
My favourite part was using different materials to make the buildings on our art work- Charlotte
I can’t believe streets in Whiteleas are named after famous artists! – Ava
I was proud of my final piece – Jamie- Junior

Year 2 SA

In Year 2SA we looked at the work of L.S. Lowry and we identified common features within his seaside pictures. We looked at the colours that he used and we noticed that he used matchstick figures. We listened to the song ‘Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs’ by Brian and Michael as it was inspired by L.S.Lowry and his artwork. The children then painted their own seaside scene in the style of Lowry.

Pupil Voice

‘L.S. Lowry’s paintings were very detailed.’ Cole

‘He drew matchstick men.’ Amber

‘I like painting. I liked mixing the colours.’ Kieron

‘I mixed purple and blue to make the colour for the sea.’ Charlie

Year 3

3JL delved deep into how the artist J.M.W Turner produced his landscape art. We ‘captured the light’ by sketching a landscape at different times of the day. We used the medium of watercolour to paint sea and sky landscapes and our school landscape. We then used different materials to collage a sea and sky landscape. We hope you love our gallery!

Pupil Voice

What went well – using the rubber to make cloud, using watercolours was fun, painting the sky went well, using different was a good idea and the sky colour was nice, using the watercolours for gumtree trunks

What didn’t go well – my sky was too dark when I used watercolours at first, sometimes the painting got too wet, when I rubbed too much the paper became bobbly

What was your favourite part – all of it! Dabbing the polystyrene on the paper, using the watercolour paints was fun, painting the sky.

Year 3/4

Year 4

For art week, Year 4 looked at Renoir and discussed the beginning of the impressionist movement. We used the mixed media of oil pastels and watercolour paints to create our own impressionist style art. We focused on the techniques of short strokes of colours and focused on how the light could affect the colours we were using.

Year 5

‘Year five have been learning all about our local industrial history including shipbuilding and mining. We decided to focus our art project around the work of LS Lowry, as he often portrayed the North East’s industrial past in his work. We looked at his use of texture and experimented with sketching his ‘matchstick men’ at our docks and mining town scenes.’

Pupil Voice

‘It was a fun experience to try and recreate somebody else’s work’ – Amelie

‘I liked copying the work but I prefer to express myself with my own ideas’ – Sophie

‘I like Lowry’s art, especially the matchstick men’ – Alexis

‘I found it hard to sketch lightly and get the right shape for the houses, but I enjoyed sketching the people’ – Lenica

Year 6

Year 6 explored the work of Christopher Nevinson. During World War One, he was a war artist but one of his pictures was censored by the government. Furious, Nevinson simply covered his work with brown paper and wrote on “Censored”. The children were inspired by his art and his story to create their own “Censored” piece in a medium they chose.

After studying Nevinson’s World War One art, the children looked at propaganda pieces from the same time period- noticing the difference in colour, style and mood. They then created their own propaganda pieces.

Pupil Voice

Amelia- We learnt about the artist Nevinson and his censored work. I decided to make my piece using his work as an inspiration. It was challenging because I had to blend lots of different colours.

Alex- I liked that we made work that would be censored like Nevinson’s work. The propaganda piece used a lot more colour and was no longer a “dark” piece of work. I preferred doing the propaganda piece because I made it very colourful and upbeat. I drew a German octopus over the world to show Germany wanted to rule the world and people had to fight against them.

Art activities in School 2022-2023

Spring Term in Reception

We combined our outdoor learning session with an art lesson and produced some fantastic work. First we read the story, ‘Not a stick’ by Antoinette Portis. Then we went outside to look for the perfect stick for our art work. The children then turned them into something else. There were some fantastic ideas!

During the week beginning 6th June 2022 we held a whole school art week which was based around the theme ‘Inspired by Nature.’ 

In Early Years the children looked at the work of artist Andy Goldsworthy and used natural materials to make their own pattern or picture.

Nursery collected natural materials and made a group piece of art enititled ‘Flowers in a Meadow.’

In Reception the children worked individually or in pairs to create their own piece of art.

Pupil Voice

Addilyn – ‘I used lots of leaves to make my picture.’

Dominic – ‘I liked making my really big picture of a lion. There was lots of room outside.’

Alina- ‘The flowers made my picture look pretty.’

In Key Stage One the children were inspired by the work of artist Paul Klee. They looked at how he uses block colour and made a communal class nature collage. They also looked at the work of Rob Arnold who makes sculptures from rubbish that he has found. As part of this the children learned all about plastic pollution.

Class Collages

Sea Creatures

Year 2 Pupil Voice

Year 1/2 Pupil Voice 

‘It’s good learning how to do lots of art’- Ava 

‘It was fun because we get to do new techniques’ – Amber 

‘I loved art week!’ – Jayden

‘I loved it because we got to make sea creatures’ – Ruby 

‘I loved art week because we normally do sketchbook work but we worked in a group to make things’ – Leah 

‘I like how we worked as a team and made sea creatures’- Jude 

In Lower Key Stage Two the children looked at the work of artist Claude Monet and created their own sunset pictures. They also took part in some nature weaving inspired by the work of Alice Fox.

Year 3 – Pupil Voice

Connor – ‘Blending colours to make your own colour was great.’
Alfie – ‘I learnt how to paint properly.’
Lillie – ‘When I paint it reminds me of painting with my little brother.’
Daisy – ‘I feel calm when I paint.’
Sydnie -‘ I like painting different things as it reminds me of painting with my Granda. It makes me feel happy. My painting makes other people happy.’
Amalie – ‘I love being creative and joining in with different things at school.’
Anna – ‘I enjoyed it as it’s really calming and it reminds me of when I paint with my Granda.’

In Upper Key Stage Two the children were inspired by the work of George Surat and Paul Signac. They used the pointillism effect to produce their own nature picture. They also looked at Gustav Klint’s ‘Tree of Life’ and learned the process of quilling paper to make their own.

Year 5/6 Pupil Voice