I have always liked this stencil print made by a Grade 1 student, Elise. Collage and some crayon rubbing have been added to enhance the work. The kangaroos are hanging around in a group which we call a “mob” here in Australia.

In July 2006 I attended a demonstration by pastel artist and teacher, Terrianne Murray at Zart, an art supplier in Box Hill. I have asked her permission to post these photgraphs of her at work. She is the President of the Pastel Society of Victoria .

Today’s Artwork is a  dry pastel drawing by my talented sister-in-law, Cherrie Osborn. Descended from John Hanson Walker (British, 1844-1933), a famous  portrait artist, Cherrie has been an Artist in School for us over the years. She is a wonderful and encouraging teacher of Grade 6 still life drawing. Her main messages to the students are “look closely and only draw what you see”, and “enjoy your work”.

Drawn from her imagination,this work, entitled ‘The Road to ………’, has us all intrigued. We’ve all travelled it in Australia, we’re just not sure where.

These portraits were painted using his daughters as subjects.The girl in green looks remarkably like my niece who is his great,great grandaughter.

Several years ago we visited our younger daughter who was on  Student Exchange in Italy. She showed us Venice which is, arguably, one of the World’s most memorable cities and Verona, home of Romeo and Juliet. We were impressed by the pavement art in Venice and the Harlequin busker in fair Verona.

While we were travelling in England in 2004 we saw a sign advertising an Art Exhibition in a very old stately home. In a centuries old ruined section there was a magnificent Swarvroski Crystal horse by Stella McCartney.

The photos do not show the brilliance of the crystals but the precision involved in hanging each crystal in its exact space to form the horse is unbelievable.

My children know I like them to look out for interesting artworks so I can use the photographs at school. My older daughter  took these in  beautiful  Barcelona. The  amazing  mosaic work is by  Spanish artist Antoni Gaudi.

I’ve always been interested in junk sculpture so I took these photos in New York on a visit there in 2003. I have had trouble finding anything about the artist, Charles Davidson and have resorted  to Ask to find anything about him. Our students really enjoy using junk in this way and it’s a good activity to do when the class is studying Reuse and Recycle.

My fellow Art teacher, Glenys Vella, and I have many activities we call our “tried and true acivities”. They are activities we’ve had success with in the past and in which the students have shown us their great imagination. These portraits were made using a square piece of calico which was dipped into a mixture of PVA glue, food dye and water, squeezed out and then spread over facial features modelled from Plasticene. The work was lifted off a plastic backing ( we used plastic icecream tub lids for support) when dry and the face, neck and hands were cut out to add to the collage. I hope you enjoy the “Cook” by Brennan and the “Old Lady” by Tara.

These holidays have given me a wonderful chance to establish connections with fellow teachers all over the world. In reading and commenting upon other blogs I am increasingly realising how valuable blogging can be  in promoting understanding between people. I am now keen to update the blog more often, even during the break from school.Today’s contributions are from my collection taken on travels within my state in Bendigo, Central  Victoria and the other in Oslo, Norway. The ceramic candle holder by Camilla Halvorsen was in a shop window in central Oslo and the dog based on a chair was made by a student at my old school, Girton Grammar in Bendigo.

Our  Summer holidays continue until January 28th so I thought I’d add some photos which I have taken over the past couple of years. These papermache hats were made by Grade 2 students. They are based on a margarine tub as the crown and thick cardboard as the brim.These are strongly joined with masking tape before being papermached, painted and decorated. Lots of fun was had when the toys came to school to try on their new hats.