In Art this term, we are exploring Block Printing!

We are looking at the artist Molly Mahon, who creates beautiful block prints using carved potatoes.

We have started our printing exploration by using a large variety of objects that we would find in everyday life and seeing what marks they make. We then chose our two favourite objects and used them to create a repeated pattern in the way Molly Mahon does in her artwork.

We are thoroughly enjoying the process of printing and are excited to use these new skills to create dynamic prints!

"You first dip something in paint, then you put it on a piece of paper, then you lift it up. That’s printing!”

"I had a comb and a circle. I made a repeating pattern. It’s that you do one, then one again, then one and one again.”

“Printing is putting something down really hard in paint and pulling it back up and then you put it back down on the paper. I liked it because we mix different colours. I done a sponge and a pinecone.”

“Adults use a machine that comes out in pictures for printing.”

“We made patterns with yellow, red, yellow, red paint. I used blocks. I was really sticking them down. I did triangles and spots.”

“So, in Art, I sticked and pulled a sponge in paint, blue paint. It feeled very weird because I don’t paint that much. It was fun!”

“We pressed things down in paint. I used yellow and red and I used a lid, a leaf, and other things. A repeating pattern goes like circle, square, triangle, circle, square, triangle again.”

“We made print patterns. I used the masher and some circles. I had some yellow and red paint. I like mushing things like paint.”

Landscape Painting 

In preparation for their work on landscapes,  Year 1 practised the technique of colour washes. They then explored the school grounds to take inspiration for their landscapes. Next they laid down colour washes in preparation for adding details to the middle ground and foreground.

Still lifes and pointillism

Year 2 practised their observational skills to create watercolours of spring flowers.  They used what they had learnt about pointillism in computing to represent the flowers with this technique as well.

Year 3 have created sculptures inspired by Antony Gormley’s “Fields”.

Their eyes look to the future as they imagine what this could hold for them. Some of their ideas are inspired by care and concern for the environment, such as  protecting and preserving habitats, caring for injured and endangered animals. Others are thinking of how they could be independent and contribute to society. We will have great explorers, vets, karate senseis, tennis players, car dealers and train drivers to name just a few!

In their own words, "Our class field is saying, 'Please look after the world.'

"They are looking at you to say, 'Look after the world.'"

They commented on how they arrived at their colour- mixes:

Yellow and red make orange, I think!

Yellow and blue make orange. Actually, green.

The middle colour is my favourite, because it's my dad's favourite (blue).

I was just wanting to make that colour (light brown). I mixed red and green.

(Do you know how you made green?) Blue and yellow.

Year 1 looked at Van Gogh's work, to see how mark-making can create a picture. They used pencils and graphite to make patterns with  all kinds of marks. The children felt that different marks created different textures and feelings. They then took inspiration from Kandinsky who "heard" colour and "saw" sounds (synaesthesia) and created marks to match the musical instruments that we played. Here is a montage of their favourite marks.