2024-2025

Observational Sketches Part 2 - Hestercombe Gardens (Autumn)

Henri Rousseau would visit the botanical gardens in Paris to get ideas of more interesting plants so we did the same. We were very kindly invited to visit Hestercombe Gardens to sketch some of their beautiful plants and enjoy the sunshine in the picturesque setting. 

Observational Sketches of house pants (Autumn)

Inspired by Henri Rousseau’s artwork of jungles depicted from his love of various house plants in his home in Paris, we had a goat observational drawings of numerous different house plants. We focused on how we could get the layers of the plant to create depth in our sketch. The use of contrast tone helped to build on the layers in the foreground of the sketch.

2023-24

Local Bridges and Graffiti Art Exploration (Summer)

Along with class 4, we embarked on a exploration of our local area - Taunton Town - looking for examples of different bridge designs and the materials they use, as well as, looking at difference between graffiti and graffiti art. Fantastic photograph was taken by Alfie.

Greek Vases - Clay Work (Spring)

Once our clay had dried, we painted our vases using acrylic paint either with a black background and orange patterns/ illustrations (red-figure) or the reverse with orange backgrounds with black patterns/ illustrations (black-figure technique). 

Greek Vases - Clay Work (Spring)

After researching, designing, getting peer feedback and redrafting our Greek Vase design, today we got our hands dirty making the design from air dry clay. We followed the coil technique where we made a circular base and then rolled long thin ‘sausages’ to stick to the circumference of the base. Each coil was added on top of the previous to build the walls of the vase. We created our own clay adhesives by making a well out of a ball of clay and adding water mixed with a paint brush. This created a watery clay which we used as glue to join our coils. Some of us added handles and even lids. We need to wait for them to dry before painting now. 

Ancient Egyptian Exhibition @ Somerset Museum (Autumn)

Follow the link below to see our excellent art work from this term showcased at our local museum.

Fayum Portraits - Proportions (Autumn)

In art, we are going to create fayum portraits of certain Egyptian pharaohs. Today, we practised the skill of getting proportions of the face correct focusing on the shape of the head, where the eyes, nose and mouth should be and how we create that realistic symmetry. Using a pencil gentle has been a huge learning for us all.

Making Papyrus paper (Autumn)

Today we got messy having a go at creating our very own papyrus paper (without using papyrus). We have taken strips of parcel paper, rather than papyrus, and covered them in watered down PVA glue and carefully lay them down on baking paper. We had to ensure we alternated between horizontal and vertical strips to create the overlap. Come back soon to see our name cartouches painted on our papyrus paper.

2022-23

The MAT's 10th Birthday Celebrations STEM Activity - Confetti Cannons!

Classes across the school are taking on STEM activities to mark the 10th year since our MAT became in existense. Our class had to create confetti cannons. The state of the classroom was horrific and I can only apologies for the mess they must of caused at home. We had fun though.

Tudor Head Sculptures (8.07.23)

During our art lessons this term, we have been making head sculptures of either one of King Henry VIII's wives or Henry VIII himself. We started by choosing a wive to imitate and identified the features of that person's face. We then sketched four stages we were going to take to complete the sculpture. Our given medium was paper mache. First we had to paper mache a balloon to give us the shape of the head and then we added card or paper to make the features for the face - lips, eyebrows, ears, nose etc.

Once we were happy we had added the features of the face and the paper mache has set, we painted using acrylic paints. We found the paper mache challenging to use and require patience when working with it. Take a look at some of the final pieces which will be on show at the Cheddon Memorial Hall's Flower Show on Saturday 29th July.

Edvard Munch - The Scream

We have been having a go at replicating Edvard Munch's most famous artwork - The Scream. Through this activity we have been able to develop our awareness of composition, scale and proportion where Edvard has created depth in his painting.

We know, from our research, that Edvard Munch would choose oil paint or oil pastels to create his pieces. Therefore, we started practising blending oil pastels to create the same atmosphere and light effects that Edvard had created.

It was messy work, but we all loved having a go and can't wait to use these skills in our own creation very soon.

2021-22

M.C. Escher Tessellations

Our first look into the live and work of Maurits Cornelis Escher. He is famous for using mathematics in his art work through tessellations. So we thought we could have a go using a repeated shape we each created.

James Mayhew Inspires! 

We were very lucky to welcome James Mayhew, author and illustrator of 'Once Upon a Tune', into our class for a truly inspirational workshop. James spoke about his life, his work with both illustrating and writing and gave a wonderful demonstration of painting to classical music from the book. 

We were all so inspired that the children had a go at the same process James goes through creating illustrations for his books. Children researched images, practised drawing images in their sketch books with different media and colour and then produced their artwork.