Ancient Greece recreated in Papier Mache ...and other things

This term I have been teaching weekly art workshops to a bunch of year 5 artists in the making. The theme this time around has been 'Ancient Greece' and we have had a whole lot of fun exploring everything from myths and legends, to Gods and monsters, to what on earth an Ancient Greek would have painted his shield with, and why...
We've made our own life sized replica Hoplite shields and designed family emblems to decorate them with, we've created a virtual treasure chest of 'ceramic' artefacts, decorated with mythical characters and stories. We researched and designed our own pack of Greek Legends Top Trumps cards and as a grand finale we created a vast Medusa head sculpture, complete with an array of 3D snakes.
I think we can safely say ' we did Ancient Greece justice this term.... and most of all we had a whole bundle of fun. I just hope the children enjoyed the sessions as much as I did... (follow this link to see the School website's photo gallery of some of the artists with their creations)

An Expedition...to an exhibition. 'Is this us, or WHAT?'

To add to the whirlwind of stuff that's been going on this last few weeks, I have been privileged enough to have spent a chunk of time each week running some art workshops for the 32 very talented young artists who make up Year 6 at my local primary school.

This series of lessons were all based loosely around the subject of 'Me' and included self portraits in realist, surrealist, cubist and pop art style. We have created life sized angels with 3d feathered wings and encapsulated an emotion in a Lichtenstein-esque bubble. It's been fun. The end of term has sprung up, oh so soon, and so we celebrated a culmination of our efforts with an exhibition, or expedition, as some of our artists have been calling it, entitled 'Is this us, or what?'

I'm currently enjoying that warm fuzzy feeling of a real achievement (and slight exhaustion) and looking forward to more workshops with Year 5 next term. Ancient Greece I do believe, bring it on..... :-)

Family time at the Design Museum

A note for this years family day at the Design Museum has just popped into my inbox and I was very pleased to see it. We've taken part in various other family events run at the Design Museum and they're generally a good day out. Last year, we made 3 dimensional models out of.... anything and everything, ( a 3d rubbish picture no less?!) and then filled up one of the design gallery spaces with our newly created 3d cityscape. It was inspirational. Kids have no limit to their imaginations and are willing to get stuck in straight away with none of the reserve that us adults carry around with us so much. It was a delight to see and I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with on this next family design day.