Art Starts With “A!”

The second term brings an exploration of three A’s in Visual Art: Asia, Australia and Antarctica. In conjunction with the Cultural continent studies of the Lower Elementary classrooms, our projects in art will focus on the artistic heritage of the people of Asia and Australia, and the natural beauty of Antarctica.

Creating Japanese fish kites.

The children in the LED classroom began their study of Asian art by creating works using ink and rice paper. Students learned about the ancient process of making ink, and enjoyed a demonstration

Shaping an undulating Chinese dragon.

on how to use an ink stick and ink stone. They created some beautiful, impressionistic paintings of iconic Asian animals such as the tiger, the crane and the panda.

Older students are now working on textured clay sculptures of Chinese dragons, applying coil-rolling techniques and impressing their dragons with rich textures and patterns. Younger students are using and blending together primary colours to create vivid Japanese kites in the shapes of swimming carp!

Applying dots to our Aboriginal paintings.

Upstairs, students have been exploring Aboriginal culture and art. Older students learned about contours and organic shapes in the process of creating sand-and-paint compositions inspired by the animal images of Aboriginal Dreamtime.

Younger students have used their knowledge of tints and shades in order to create monochromatic landscape compositions inspired by the

Carving a turtle out of clay.

great red rock of Uluru in Australia, and have applied their knowledge of patterns and shapes to their dot paintings. Now, the younger students are working on slab sculptures of venomous (but very colourful and beautiful) snakes, and the older children are working on more detailed slab relief sculptures of sea creatures from the Great Barrier Reef.

Some of the children’s artwork are now displayed in their classrooms, and we invite you to drop by to view some of their masterpieces!