Project 210: Drawing

 As we hadn't had a project that specifically focused an art since Project 170: Vincent van Gogh, we decided it was time for one on drawing. 

We started the week with the children learning about different sorts of mark making, making use of some of the activities on Art Skills for Teachers, trying out different mediums to draw with (e.g., charcoal, graphite sticks, pen and ink etc), and learning how to draw Matilda. 

They went to Hamerton Zoo to practice their sketching:

And learned about Albrecht Dürer with a PowerPoint on Twinkl, and also doing a Dürer style animal drawing activity.

Next Project: Swiss Family Robinson

Project 160: Wassily Kadinsky

We decided it was time to look at another artist. We hadn't focused on a single artist since Project 136: Leonardo da Vinci, and while we did Project 88: Painting, the only time we've solely focused on a single artist was Project 79: Art and Mondrian. 

We started by learning about Kandinsky and his work, looking at a PowerPoint on Twinkl, reading about him in the art books we have, and watching a YouTube video. 

We did a Twinkl cut and stick activity and colouring sheets. 

We looked at the colour wheel, got the children to mix their own colours, and created Kandinsky-style concentric circles.

Finally the children created their own abstract masterpieces by rolling a dice to pick geometric shapes and lines for inclusion. 

Next Project: Preparing for Christmas.

Project 79: Art and Mondrian

This week's project was inspired by a stop-go animation where a Piet Mondrian 'painting' was created with Lego.

Although we try to ensure there's an art or craft project each week, we would like to do a bit more fine art, and Piet Mondrian seemed an ideal place to start.

The children created their own Mondrian style pieces in Lego:

Solomon (Left) and Monica's (Right) Lego Mondrian

And with crayons:

Solomon (Top) and Monica's (Bottom) Mondrian in Crayon

We visited Tate Modern, to see a couple of original Mondrians, and another work inspired by it:

Finally we finished the week with a Mondrian maths puzzle, which the children really enjoyed exploring on graph paper:

Of course no piece of art exists in isolation, and we studied a host of books and videos exploring the history of art, and what art is, and also visited the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. By the end of trooping around three London galleries in one day everyone was exhausted!

Solomon and Monica each chose a postcard of a picture which they then had to write about, describing what was in the picture and why they liked it.

And Solomon also wanted them to create a piece in the style of Kazimer Malevich after seeing a painting in a book:

Solomon (Left) and Monica's (Right) Malevich-style pieces

Next week's project: Plants and flowers.