Art and Design
Welcome to our Art and Design Page
At John Cross CE Primary School, we aim to inspire pupils and develop their confidence to experiment and invent their own works of art. Our curriculum is designed to give pupils every opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills, nurture their talents and interests, express their ideas and thoughts about the world, as well as learning about the rich heritage and culture of the British Isles and beyond.
We hope you enjoy looking at our work as much as our children enjoy learning new skills and creating their own works of art both indoors and outdoors in our school grounds.
Class 4: Art & Design Skills
In this collection of lessons the children studied and developed their skills in: design, drawing, craft, painting and art appreciation. They created zentangle patterns and subsequent prints, painted in the style of impressionist painters and explored the piece ‘Nighthawks’ by Edward Hopper. Here are a few examples of their work.
In lesson 1 the children were given one sixth of ‘The Japanese Footbridge’ by Claude Monet as a vertical strip, they were asked to accurately draw what they saw on their fraction of the painting before mixing and applying paint to match the original.
During lesson 2 the children created small squares of 'zentangle' patterns; an abstract drawing created using repetitive patterns.
Lesson 3
Using a zentangle pattern from the last lesson and inspiration from the work of William Morris, the children created a reverse system print. They transferred their design onto a polyprint tile using a pen to create deep lines before printing and repeating the print process to create their pattern.
Class 3
Craft - Tie-Dye
Whilst completing work on ‘Crafts’ the children in Class 3 had great fun creating their own tie-dye t-shirts.
The children found out how tie-dye worked in a similar way to wax resist, by covering or blocking colour to specific areas or in a particular pattern before dyeing or covering with paint. They also investigated how scrunching, folding or coiling up their t-shirts tightly and securing with elastic bands would create different tie-dye patterns.
Their completed t-shirts and art display look fantastic!
Landscapes using different media
Class 2 (Year 1&2) completed work on composition and worked with different art materials to create texture for a project they developed over five lessons. Based on the theme of 'The seaside' they used a copy of ‘Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer’ by Vincent Van Gogh and used a range of materials, from lentils to foil, to replicate the textures found at the seaside.
This was a week which involved both process and product, it was not a product driven week with expectations for a completed work of art at the end of every day. Each class selected a topic based upon ‘Our Natural World’ and focussed on particular skills to develop throughout the week and the use of materials and techniques not used before. There were also visits and classes ran by a secondary school art teacher and a professional clay artist.
Our Natural World on the Beach
The school worked with a professional clay artist to create their own sea life sculptures. They were taught various techniques for creating texture in clay, how to use a clay slip to join pieces of clay and how to use moulds to add detail to their work.
Butterflies
Year 2 children observed, sketched and used water colours to paint butterflies. Year 1 sketched large butterflies and experimented with paper pulp to create texture and 'Brusho' paint to experiment with colour mixing.
Birds of Prey
Year 2 studied the eyes of owls and other birds of prey and practised their sketching skills in sketch books. The children then used a number of painting techniques including wax relief, 'Brusho' colour mixing and mixed painting and collage to create sheets to tear and use as feathers on their birds. They then used Indian inks to create detailed eyes for their works of art.
