Visual Arts @ Taylors Lakes Primary School

I am posting this Wassily Kandinsky artwork entitled “Colour Studies : Squares with Concentric Circles” to inspire our Grade 3 and 4 students. They will use oil pastels to create their own version of his work. Kandinsky (1866- 1944) is thought of as a founder of Abstract Art. It will be interesting to see  the effects which the students will be able to achieve using our new packets of 48 colours of oil pastels from Zart Art. There are lots more ideas for Kandinsky inspired artwork on the Art Projects for Kids Blog. We enjoyed this great YouTube video which shows many of Kandinsky’s paintings set to music. We think they left the best until last.

Here in Australia our  Summer School Holidays are ending. Today, the 26th of January, is our National Day,  Australia Day. We celebrate the day that the First Fleet arrived from Britain, landed at Sydney Cove and raised the Union Jack flag. We have our own flag now and each Australia Day it is proudly waved and flown by more and more Australians as we celebrate our good fortune to be a part of this great nation. The photos above were taken on my recent visit to the Southern New South Wales areas of Womboota and Moama. I have posted this selection because they represent our history and some of the character traits  for which Australians are famous.

The red metal cow shaped sculpture is a mail box. The RMB on its side stands for Rural Mail Box. It represents humour and ingenuity. Recycling too.

The tank with the message on the end was made by a company called Furphy. The tanks were found throughout country areas and were portable for watering stock and fighting fires. The  famous motto reads Good, Better, Best, Never Let it Rest, Till your Good is Better, And your Better Best.

The old dray would have been used to carry bales of wool or crates of fruit to the Port or Railway Station. It would have been pulled by a team of strong horses or sturdy bullocks.

The old Ferguson tractor  lies behind a local Pottery as a symbol of the hard work put in to the local farming area. Smaller tractors were used between the vines, for digging postholes and for general farm work. They were known for their toughness and reliability.

The pottery owls are displayed in the rustic grounds of the Old School Winery and Meadery at the little town of Womboota. To me they symbolize the  “wait patiently” attitude necessary when living on the land.

The gate post with the plant growing out of its top caught my eye and symbolizes ” taking an opportunity”.  Dust gathered in a hollow topped post and a windblown seed wet by not so frequent rain set out growing.

The Perricoota Woolshed sign (part of the newly established Backroads Trail) tells travelers of the area’s history. Quiet sheds once buzzed with many shearers shearing thousands of sheep. These people worked hard and are part of our history and national character.

We wish a Happy Australia Day to one and all.

The School Year is over in Australia ( the new School Year begins in late January 2013) and families are preparing for Christmas, the New Year and in many cases an annual holiday to the beach or to the country. This wreath was brought  into the Art Room by a  creative Grade 5 student who constructed it using a foam circle as the base. She covered it in diagonally wrapped ribbon before adding the decorations. We wish our Blog followers from far and wide a very happy holiday season and all the very best for 2013.

This year I have enjoyed all my Art Classes but today I want to say an enormous “Thank You” to  the students of my Thursday classes, the  very talented 4CD, 4SK, 4AA and 3/4 HL. They have been so eager  to learn and have shared their wonderful interest in Drawing, Art in general and ICT with me. Each week they bring in incredible drawings which they have done in their spare time, much of it inspired by YouTube tutorials and shared ideas. Even while I was away on holidays in the USA they worked very hard to produce their own collage versions of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my fellow Art Teacher Glenys Vella who replaced me for several weeks and who always brings out the best in our students. Simply, Thank You all.

The Statue of Liberty was given to the United States of America by France for  America’s 100th Birthday of their Independence. It was unveiled 10 years late on October 28th 1886.

The New York skyline as we saw it from one of the many Harbour cruises.

My mother- in -law, Win, who is 95 years old joined us for our visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were photographed in front of some large tapestries which were skilfully created centuries ago using wool, silk and metallic threads.

One of our favourite paintings was of George Washington crossing the Delaware River. What  season do you think it is? The main clue is in the water.

At the end of October I set of with my husband Greg and my mother- in-law Win to visit New York where Greg was to run in the New York Marathon. The Marathon was cancelled but we still had a great time  seeing the sights and visiting the Metropolitan Art Museum. I am posting these photos with my students and fellow Visual Arts Teacher, Glenys Vella in mind. I look forward to catching up with you all very soon.

The beautifully crafted chalices above were part of an exhibition of religious metalware. Our  younger students were asked where they had seen something like these. Some replied that they have seen them in their church while others had seen them in movies.

Our little Mali the Elephant has spent the past three weeks at Melbourne Zoo along with 54 others her size which were  decorated by students from Victorian schools. She was positioned on the South side of the Zoo’s historic Carousel. Not far away was a herd of 50 larger Malis decorated by professional artists. The herd seemed to be heading in the direction of the Asian Elephant enclosure where real Mali spends her days playing with her little brother Ongard and the rest of her family. Our decorated Mali model will soon be returned to us and spend her days being admired by the students  and families of Taylors Lakes Primary School.

My thoughtful  older daughter Kate who is a TV journalist here in Melbourne was sent on assignment to Melbourne Zoo which celebrated its 150th Birthday today. Kate took this photo of Victorian Artist Deborah Halpern’s Mosaic  Elephant.  Her elephant was one of 50 (pictured below) decorated by professional Artists as part of the Zoo’s Mali in My City Project. I was fortunate to attend a two day Mosaic Workshop with Deborah at Ballarat Art Gallery in 2005. As a result I have helped our Grade 6 students make a Mosaic for our  School Library wall each year since then. We make  a 600 x 600 mm picture of the animal which is  featured on the Chinese Calendar for that year. This year it is the Year of the Dragon. We will be choosing the design from those submitted by our Grade 6 students We will then complete the mosaic with each student having the opportunity to cut and glue on  the tiles. Finally,  the winning designer will help the Art Teachers present the Mosaic to the School Principal at Graduation in December.

As Art Teachers  and Learners  we are always looking for inspiration for new actiivities and uses for the myriad of art materials that is out there. At Zart in Box Hill we discovered these incredible stick insects made from matchsticks and fairy floss (cotton candy) sticks. Made by Year 9 and 10 students at Yarra Hills Secondary College, these beasts will certainly inspire our students  to consider using matchsticks for constructing objects other than buildings. Their work brings new meaning to the term “Stick Insect”. Congratulations to the wonderfully patient students involved.

Yesterday fellow Visual Arts Teacher Glenys Vella and I planned  Term 4′s Units of Work for our classes and then paid visits to Resource Rescue in Bayswater and Zart in Box Hill.
In the foyer of Zart was this interesting display of materials attractively arranged by their staff. Our students are very fortunate to have access to all these exciting materials. Which ones would you like to use?

Over the past couple of months our Grade 4 students have been working on the decoration of Mali the fibreglass elephant as part of the Melbourne Zoo’s Mali in My School Project which was launched to help celebrate the Zoo’s 150th Birthday. The theme of looking after all our planet’s animals, in particular our endangered animals here in Victoria, was encouraged in an excellent Resource Folder which accompanied little Mali. From pristine white fibreglass, our Mali, who is our  school’s  Art Elements Elephant became one of bright colours, shapes, lines textures and patterns. The decoration was the work of students from three Grade 4 classes and a Grade 3/4. How has she made a difference you might ask? One aspect was the level of Team work involved whilst allowing for individual ideas. The juggling of other art work around working on Mali as only a maximum of six students could fit around her was a skill we perfected and the seeing through to the end of a long project and presenting her with pride at Assembly were others.
Congratulations Grade 4 and 3/4. Your hard work  has paid off in a sculpture to be very proud of and in the creation of a group project which will remain in our school for many years to come, helping future students learn too.