Year 9 Cubist Work

The year 9 students completed their final cubist art works this week – with fantastic results.  Students studied Cubism in depth over a 2 month period, looking at the work of an artist, making research drawings and experimented with different materials.  It’s great to see such diversity in the final work – well done year 9s!
Shady's hot & cold musical instruments...

Chanel's piece has lots of different materials collaged-including some metal rings from her dad's work...

Clara's sculpture was a very ambitious piece, and absolutely fantastic in my opinion!...

This is Sondos's who is in Mrs Walsh's class...

Zahrah's shoes....

Harrison's cool sculpture...

Iman's piece...can you see the hidden faces?  She made hers using oil paints - and it still smells lovely!

Duncan's...

Faris's piece.  He really got into the Cubist spirit with this project and spent a lot of time at home coming up with all sorts of ideas - including sculpture and installation ideas.... 

Aseel's beautiful piece, which she spent hours on.... 

here is a detail from Aseel's.  She collaged magazine pages onto the surface, along with other materials.  She has such a lot of patience! 

 Kailey's final work...I love the monocrhome with a splash of bling...

Abrar's piece is busy and colourful... 



Niki de Saint Phalle Inspired Sculptures

Charcoal Drawings of Karl Blossfeldt images

Using the beautiful photography of Karl Blossfeldt, the year 7s made these charcoal drawings.  I got them to work in reverse by covering their paper with charcoal first.  Using putty rubbers they took away the white areas and left the darker areas.  They used charcoal and white chalk for fine details, and to acheive a wide range of tone.  I love this technique as it is really fun, messy and if the students make a mistake, they just rub some charcoal over the top.     

Flower Paintings - Georgia O'Keefe Style

Here are the Georgia O'Keefe inspired flower paintings, done by the year 7s.

Hundertwasser Inspired Clay Tiles

I began the ‘Built Environment’ project by getting the students to make ink drawings of buildings from Barcelona (I had been there over the summer and collected lots of photos).  We then looked at the work of Hundertwasser and the students designed their own building in his style.  They considered his use of colour, hidden faces, patterns, multiple view points and took inspiration from nature – just like he did.  These drawings were then used to make the clay tiles.  Some students chose a small section of their drawing to make in clay, and some created new designs for a tile, taking elements from all different ideas. 

The clay tile is a really easy technique – it’s a bit like making pastry in the way that you roll out the clay and cut out shapes. The students also had the choice to use glass on their tile.  They chose what colours they wanted and I helped them to place the cracked glass on the tile (it can be a bit dangerous if the students do it, because of all the little sharp pieces).  The glass liquefies in the kiln and creates some really beautiful results.  The glass always produces different results which is fun and exciting to see when they come out of the kiln!   

Some examples that I made, these are them before they went into the kiln and were drying out. 

Big Heads!

My year 8 classes have been working in groups to produce large collage portraits. Each student made a tonal charcoal and chalk drawing of a close up of their own face, using the mirrors.  I assigned them each a different part of the face to draw, working within their table groups.  I didn’t tell them what we were doing at the drawing stage – I told them it was a surprise.  They love a bit of mystery!

We looked at the work of contemporary artist, Yi Chen, who makes collages of faces and paints these.  I am a really big fan of his work.  The students had mixed feelings about Chen’s work – but it opened up lots of discussions in class.  His work questions the role of cosmetic surgery in our society and what true beauty is.  I really enjoy have class discussions with the studets, it's great to hear things from their perspective - often they give very insightful opinions.

I then explained that we would be making a large Yi Chen inspired collage within our groups.  I had taken photocopies of the students’ drawings (I didn’t want to destroy their drawings which were beautiful on their own), and they worked together in their groups to make these collages.  I love these lessons as it allows for some group work, which you don’t often get a chance to do in Art.  The students love making them too as they get a chance to be really messy, work on a large scale and they can make really funny faces.  I think the end results are great!

I’ve been working with the technician, Adam, to get the heads standing up and dotted around school.  This is our trial attempts and I think they look pretty good.  We have an Arts Festival coming up next month, and I’m hoping that all 12 of the heads will be on display.

I did this project a few years ago when I was on my probationer year in Cumbernauld, Scotland.  These heads were made using the students real drawings, rather than photocopies.  I displayed them on the walls at the entrance of my classroom and I think they looked great.

 

Jump Into Paintings with the Year 7s

I recently completed a 3 week project with my year 7 classes which I called ‘Jump Into Paintings’.  I got the idea whilst doing my teacher training year from our university lecturer.  I think it is a really fun way to get the students talking about famous art works, describing different formal elements and thinking about what might be happening in the paintings.

I began this project by telling them a story of how they end up locked inside an art gallery and they loved love the drama of it all!  Students were asked to imagine they had magically jumped into the paintings and they had to consider what they would be doing, what the atmosphere is like and the story behind the paintings.  We have a full Mac suite at our school (very lucky, I know) and students used Photoshop and digital photographs to create these fantastic images. 

As a homework piece I asked students to write a short written description or story to describe their journey into their painting.  They really enjoyed this project and some have told me that they have made more examples at home!