Art & Design at Cotsford
At Cotsford Primary all children will have the opportunity to enhance and expand their skills and techniques using a range of media and materials. Using the Cornerstones curriculum, alongside the Kapow scheme of work, children learn the skills of drawing, painting, printing, collage, textiles, sculpture, 3D work and digital art. They will creatively design and make products using a range of media and materials and are given opportunities to explore and evaluate different creative ideas and works of art. Children will be introduced to a range of artists and their artwork and will be able to develop their knowledge of the styles used.
Please click on the link for Art National Curriculum Information.
Summer 1
The children in Early Years have been looking closely at pictures of animals which they may find on safari and have completed observational drawings. They have also been drawing and painting flowers using watercolours, and completed some 3D paper art ‘Hungry Caterpillars’’.
In Year 1, the children have investigated ways of making 3d drawings using paper. They have rolled paper to make tubes and have learnt to curl, crinkle, twist and concertina the paper, all of which they can secure to a flat base.
The children have explored and created a range of portraits this half term in Year 2. First of all the children brought something special in from home to include in their portraits. They drew four of their friends in a range of poses. From this they used a drawing tool on the ipads to create some portraits. Working in groups, the children discussed a range of royal portraits. They looked closely at the background, objects, pose, facial expression and clothing. The children thoroughly enjoyed using PicCollage to create their regal self- portrait. To finish, the class visited Bowes Museum to explore the portraits gallery and took part in a portraiture art workshop which led to creating portraits using a range of materials.
Art has been amazing this half term in Year 3. The children have designed and made their very own Greek pottery. Using their hands and clay tools they first of all chose to make a pinch pot or a coil pot using the score and slip technique. Next, they used pictures of Ancient Greek pottery to paint patterns onto their hardened pots. The children also looked at Greek mosaic images and used paint and paper to create their own designs.
Year 5 have been thinking about becoming architects. As you can see in the pictures below, they sketched a house and investigated the artist, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, which helped the children to design their own building.
As part of their local History work, the children studied the work of the Ashington Group, also known as the Pitmen Painters of Northumberland, which you can explore here, https://www.ashingtongroup.co.uk/home.html. The children used photographs of mines and miners from the 20th century to recreate using a variety of art materials and techniques.
Year 6 have loved art this half term. They studied artists including Louise Nevelson, Nicola Antony and Judith Scott. These artists are mixed media artists and it was interesting to see that their work didn’t always show exactly what they said it did! Next, they thought back about their time at Cotsford Primary School and picked out some of their favourite memories, which they used as inspiration for their work. They looked at representing their growth symbolically, using water colour techniques and made a timeline of their journey through school with objects from their favourite memories.
Spring 2
In art this term the children in Early Years have completed repeated patterns with stamps carefully choosing the colours to be true to the real object.
They have also created some funny faces using fruit and vegetable pictures. The children have learnt where lots of our fruit come from trees and not just the supermarket!
Easter cards were also made using the children’s handprints and feathers.
The children in Year 4 have been looking at sketching, printmaking and sculpture. The children have made small scale drawings of ammonite fossils, which have included lots of fine detail and spirals. The children then carved their designs into polystyrene tiles and made prints, using two or three colours. The results were beautiful!
The children also learned about the sculpture artist, Antony Gormley. They looked at the techniques he uses and then compared two of his most famous pieces of work, The Angel of The North and Exposure.
Spring 1
The children have completed lots of different paintings including painting their own story map and trolls. They have practised colour mixing their own paint for their big bad wolf paintings.
The children have loved creating ‘Funny Faces’ – we looked at portraits and self-portraits using mirrors.
The children visited the Hancock Museum and created portraits of the animals.
The children have loved learning facts about Pablo Picasso and his life. They created some fantastic pieces of artwork in the style of Cubism.
They were able to recall facts about Picasso’s life using concept maps and started to make comparisons between James Rizzi and Pablo Picasso’s work.
This half-term, children have been looking at some of the work of significant still life artists including Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, and Cornelis Gijsbrechts. They have learned about still life techniques including sketching, colour mixing and painting. They explored a variety of still life and learned about the use of colour and composition. They created still life arrangements, sketched them and then mixed primary colours to create secondary colours and paint their own still life art.
So much to do in Art this half term! Year 3 have had great fun looking at different patterns and textures and making collages in their scrapbooks to represent what is important in their lives. They have also made their own papyrus paper, just like they did in Ancient Egypt. They used their newly made paper to add a story using charcoal hieroglyphics to tell a story and then made this into a scroll.
Year 5 loved the idea of creating their own 3D ‘Dia de los Muertos’ (Day of the Dead) skull. They took inspiration from films, such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCQnUuq-TEE and pictures. As you can see in the pictures below, the children started by covering a balloon and a mask template in masking tape, then they added several layers of paint, before finally adding the detail and pattern with bright colours. During the half term, the children also created Mexican skull art using different media, comparing the two for effect and they developed their skills by engraving an Ancient Maya stelae.
Autumn 2
The children have created a lot of pictures including a painting of their class elf, Sam. They have enjoyed creating their Christmas cards, calendars and decorating their own Christmas trees for class.
They have also completed some self-portraits too using mirrors and painting at the easel like real artists!
Wow! We have some amazing artists in Year 4! Their finished landscapes were very impressive. The children practised different techniques including, cross-hatching using fine line markers and watercolours to begin to create atmospheric perspective. They then looked at digital images and how the ‘mood’ of pictures can be changed, depending on the colours used. The children then used these skills to sketch their own landscape and used watercolour paint to reflect the painting’s ‘mood’. Miss Bartlett love the results!
This half term, the children have been learning about Inuit art and artists, their cultures and traditions. They have practised the techniques linked to Inuit printing, carving and stencilling. The children started by looking at examples of Inuit art and creating mood boards and some sketches of their favourite examples. Even though it was tricky, the children thoroughly enjoyed creating their own soap stone sculptures. Some children even showed theirs off during class assembly.
As a part of our work for Remembrance Day, the children in Year 6 created a mural using mixed media to represent their learning. They made 3D paper and card poppies, sculpting the card to help them stand out as well as drawing different poppies using shading techniques. Their final display was very effective and complemented the artwork from the other year groups. It was great to see all the art on display in the hall.
Autumn 1
The children in EY have explored mixing colours and what happens when they do. They have painted lots of pictures for their family and have completed some lovely paintings of themselves too!
James Rizzi and his artwork has been a firm favourite for Year 1. They loved his use of bright colours and enjoyed recreating his work in different ways. The children explored making secondary colours, through mixing primary colours together, and were excited to see the colours change. They thought about how his work made them feel and created art featuring buildings and bright colours just like he did.
The children in Year 2 have enjoyed learning about the formal skills in art this half term. They have created repeating patterns using a range of objects. The children looked at a range of work by Max Ernst who created the art of ‘Frottage’. The children were inspired by him to explore rubbings and extended this to create a picture using a range of rubbings. Tonal shading was the trickiest by far as they created different tones and shading in the style of Ed Rusha’s ‘Ribbons’. The most success was when they explored 3D, tone, shading and colour to create a planet using pastels.
Year 3 have certainly improved their artistic skills this half term. They have developed their sketching skills using fine guide lines and shapes to start sketches and now have a better understanding of adding extra detail or shading for effect. They have also worked on sculpting basic shapes using wire and have loved learning to bend, twist and shape wire to fit a given template.
Formal elements of art has been the focus in Year 4 this term. The children have enjoyed making patterns through printing and have loved showing different feelings and moods by the textures used. The children have used a range of tools, including: charcoal, pencils, printing ink, rollers and compasses.
Art in Year 6 has been so interesting. We have been looking at different styles of art, including Picasso and his cubist style as well as the surrealist style of Salvador Dali. We recapped how to proportion a realistic face, before creating a collage face in the style of Picasso and a portrait representing our inner self in the style of Dali!
