Summer 2022
Sir Anthony Gormley ~ Sculptor
Last year's Northwich Primary Art trail was on the theme of belonging. Belonging might be thought of as the taproot of humankind – we all need to belong somewhere if we are to grow and thrive.
This year, children and teachers in the partnership are looking up and out from our individual sense of belonging and to the side roots which enable us to be our very best selves. Connecting with other people, with our world, ideas and experiences nurtures and develops kind hearts, helpful hands and thoughtful minds. Through connection and participation everyone can become someone in our community who can make a positive difference to their own lives, those of their neighbours and the wider world.
The theme of connection ties in well to what will hopefully be the beginning of the end to a pandemic that has affected us all for the past two years.
Year 4 thought about all the ways we connect with other people, sharing ideas, values and information. Although we are all different, we can connect in ways that aren't always visible.
Year 4 used tone, shade and texture for their cityscape where many artists connect with each other to make work together.
Year 2's self portraits used the work of artist illustrator Quentin Blake as inspiration
Children used their mark making skills to make these amazing cogs. We are all connected together like cogs in a machine, working as one to help each other and move forward together.
Children have been working together on different art techniques in Art Club. After exploring how we connect to God, family, friends, community and the wider world, the children used press print to represent their ideas. The rainbow theme came from the children's discussions about God's promise to us all.
Year 2
Year 2
Three dimensional work connecting with the wider world and what's going on in distance lands.
Year 3 children thought about the connections we made with other people through sharing ideas, values and information. Although we are all different, we can all be connected in ways that aren't always visible.
Year 2
Year 4
Every child in Year 2 made a square to make our map of the world. We thought of all the places we connect with and marked then on the map.
Year 2 took inspiration from the book 'Only One You,' designing fish to show that while we're all unique we are all connected.
Year 4 designed symbols to show what the word 'connection' meant to them. These included hearts, holding hands and linking chains.
At playtime children made a Joyous Machine, inspired by the work of sculptor Jean Tinguely's Homage to New York, made of everyday things people consume, break and waste.
The machine was made of old, broken stuff that could end up in landfill. We included instruments because playing music is an important part of Kingsmead children connecting across different classes.
Contemporary artist, Michael Landy used Homage to New York to make massive drawings. Like Tinguely he is interested in how much we in the rich world consume.
We used our sculpture and Michael Landy's drawings to imagine our own Joyous Machines. We thought about what our machines might do and connected them altogether to make one Joyous Machine. Lots of ideas connected for how the machine could make a happy, healthy world.
Our drawings had three visual elements: the sculpture we made, bits of Michael Landy's drawings we liked and unobserved imaginative bits that we made up.
Year 2 drew straight onto their canvas with pen, like a game of consequences, connecting their part of the machine to someone else's.
Year 4 used Paul Klee's technique of oil paint transfer drawings; a cross between a print and a drawing these make very different marks to the black pen. Hear children talk about their work.
All our artwork has been completed by pupils at the Russett school in Weaverham.The Russett is an all through special academy offering education for children with severe and complex learning difficulties and autism.
The children worked very hard and had lots of fun creating and exploring how connections with others can help make a positive difference to their own lives and those of others.
We are very proud of our pupils and hope you enjoy looking at their creations!
We thought about the ways we connect with one another. During the Pandemic we discovered new ways to reach out to friends and family.
We chose muted colours to show the times when we faced problems and needed friends and family to support us.
We then used brighter colours to show how bright the future looks when we work together.
Children discussed what 'connect' meant to us, how we can connect to each other and different groups of people. Children discussed connection by holding hands and used each other's hands as templates.
Children discussed connecting through postcards, travel, singing and sharing stories. Children talked about mixing colours and decided they'd like to mix primary colours to make their picture bright and fun.
Thessalonians 5:1
Our school motto echoes throughout all our classes, each named after a road in our area, Davenham. We collaboratively produced an aerial map of Davenham in coloured pastel, symbolising the different personalities in our vibrant community. We painted over the map and scratched away our class names (this is called scraffitio), connecting each back to the title of our work.
Our sculpture is inspired from our learning about the Christian value of Koinomia - community and friendship. We looked at the body language in the photograph from 1932, Lunch Atop a Skyscraper and then used wire to reflect our body language in Koinomia time each morning, a time when we prepare ourselves for the day ahead. We looked at Giacometti's sculptures to inform our wire work.
