Dear families,

Alkimos students have been busy in the Art room this semester, creating many beautiful pieces, as well as developing and practising their skills. We started off the year with oil pastel self-portraits - reviewing warm and cool colours, facial feature proportion, and a focus on drawing eyes for the senior students. This was a wonderful opportunity to get to know the students and their abilities.

Lately, the Year Ones and Twos have been investigating the collage artwork of Eric Carle, (author of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’). Techniques used by the students included mixing primary colours to create secondary colours, using tools to create textures in painting, layering of collage materials, and creating symmetry. They experimented with shape, colour, space, and texture to create their collage butterflies.

Year Three and Four students have been undertaking the printmaking technique of embossing. They learned that embossing has been used since Ancient Egyptian times to decorate gold and silver, as well as in Medieval times to decorate leather objects. Using thin copper plates, the students created a design that incorporated a variety of lines, (E.g. curved, straight, zigzag) as well as raised and indented patterns. They then selected tools to transfer their design onto the metal. Students also looked at modern artworks from New Zealand and Argentinian artists.

Year Five and Six students have been creating one-point perspective paintings that use zentangles to simulate texture, depth, and movement. They have practised the art elements of line, texture, and space. Students have practised and utilised three different watercolour techniques - ‘wet on dry,’ ‘wet on wet’ and ‘salting’ to create different effects.

Below are photos of the finished products, as well as some ‘work in progress’ examples.

Kind regards,

Mrs Wittam, Mrs Richardson and Miss Bagnall