Kingsmead Cave
caring for ourselves in autumn/winter 2022
Starry Night in EYFS
Reception children were studying light and dark. What better painting to learn from than Vincent Van Gogh's famous painting. EYFS children learned about Van Gogh's beautiful mark making. They made their own beautiful marks in these paintings of a starry night with a limited colour pallete.
Some people are afraid of the dark - studying and understanding them is step one to things being less scary.
Self Portraits in Key Stage 1
Year 1 and 2 studies portraits and self portraits. We learned to recognise different artists by their style. We looked especially at Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh who children had first met when they were in Ladybirds. Van Gogh used bold brush marks to make his self portraits. His work included things (symbols) about him - a favourite hat, sitting in his bedroom alongside a favourite picture, nursing an injury to his ear.
In our self portrait we needed to think how we wanted to be shown. What would we wear? Would we include an object about us? Where would we be? What might we be doing?
We mixed all our colours from primaries@ red, yellow and blue. Using black and white, we made shades and tints.
And at the end of all our work there was one question left.
How will we curate our work?
We looked at exhibition catalogues from Art Galleries.
We have exhibited our self portraits turning the corridors into our gallery. We made exhibition catalogues of our work.
Our work moved from
Me - Myself - I to
We - Ourselves - Us
Taking us rather neatly from Autumn/Winter (ourselves) into Spring (others)!
Prehistoric Art in Lower Key Stage 2
Year 3 and 4 studied prehistoric art, a tradition that goes back into pre-history and still inspires artists working today. We learned that art predates writing, mathematics and maybe even language. Making visual marks (Art) unites all our human family.
Prehistoric artists made abstract and figurative work
They used positive and negative images - just like artists working today
Aboriginal artists in Australia
work in a way going back to prehistoric times. They don't go to art school but learn to make their work in their community, apprenticed to a working artist. They may be taught to make work by their mothers or fathers.
To make our own work we first tried to understand how Aboriginal artist in Australia today make their work.
We documented our learning in our sketchbooks to inform our own work.
Our work, inspired by the Aboriginal Art of Australia, includes symbols. Our abstract works include symbolic information about ourselves, perhaps special places and things that are important to us. The work is abstract but it carries meaning about each artist.
We reflected on our collaborative work in our sketchbooks. We thought about the process and what our work means to us.
Our final piece was made in pairs or a group of four. Each individual in school is part of many communities: family, friends, class and schoolmates. Our work took us from Autumn and caring for ourselves into Spring where we think about caring for others.
This beautiful work shows how that while we are all individuals, when we come together and make work together we achieve results that are more beautiful and interesting than we could achieve on our own.
Ancient Greek Pottery in Upper Key Stage 2
Year 5 and 6 studied Ancient Greece in history and learned about the red and black figure painting from Athens that we first think of with Ancient Greek vase painting. Ancient Greek potters showed their beliefs and daily lives through their pottery.
But what would the potters of 2022 show archaeologists of the future about our lives and concerns?.
Making Music
Children in Upper Key Stage 2 Wind and String Bands began playing together in September. By half term we were concert ready!
Spanish Violin
Can you hear how the violins imitate the sound of the guitar?Autuno
From Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Can you hear the Autumn winds gusting and the leaves blowing about?Grandfather's Clock
Can you hear the tick tock of the clock in the music? Can you hear when it stops?Orange and Yellow and Brown
Autumn colours are everywhere in this piece.