Wow, Term 3 has absolutely flown by! This term, the artists have been busy… making, painting, considering creative options, working to find solutions to arty quandaries, drawing, designing and altogether having a blast at the art table! At every opportunity the artists have been in charge of mixing their own colours, all informed by Colour Theory and the mixing of warm and cool primaries as well as tints.
Over the course of the past nine weeks, we:
- constructed and painted a quirky acrobat who flips and somersaults using tension as a mechanism! Amazing!
- constructed some quirky musical instruments- “shakuhachis”, (a science lesson in sound, volume and vibration).
- practised juggling with scarves and then created our own juggling balls. We made skipping ropes and Flower sticks! (Some of the tricks we can do are sensational!) We also dyed and made an Olympic-sized twirling ribbon. (Again, great tricks and graceful choreography- definitely some contenders here for the next Olympics!)
- explored analogous colours by painting a canvas with two primary colours, then a second layer with a different combination of primaries. We challenged ourselves, (and avoided the pressure of making something perfect), by using metre-long paint brushes! The canvasses are so beautiful! We also explored the colourful, “mark-making” works of Australian artist, Tiff Manuel.
- created 2-4 designs for printing onto a mug, t-shirt, tote and cushion cover. The students worked diligently on these as you will see by their results! This was also an exercise in visualising – how big, which location(s) on the item, matching designs, repeating, mirroring…
- used air-drying clay to construct a balancing sculpture. Brilliant!
- made and applied colourful designs to popcorn boxes… (then cooked and ate popcorn!)
- practised our skills of observation with 10 second, 30 second, one-minute and two-minute sketches of each other and a vase of flowers! This is a great exercise that, with such short working times, removes the pressure of producing a perfect artwork and produces confident, quirky results.
- made optional forays into a range of activities requested by the students. These included making a resin and polymer clay rock pool, assembling melty beads with an “Elements of Art and Principles of Design” focus, treasure box, decorative mirror frame, free drawing and origami…
Thanks everyone, for your enthusiastic support of our art program! Thankyou, students, for your wonderful ideas and dedication to learning. We wish you all an enjoyable, safe and restful term break.
Catherine and the Team at LimeDoor Studio