I wanted to highlight an amazing painting made by one of our Grade 7 students, Matilde B. Following on from our analysis of the weird and wonderful details in select Northern Renaissance work, my Grade 7s were tasked with a free painting exercise: Students were told one piece of work would be selected to be…

Mr. Donnelly’s Grade 7 group have been focusing on the details in paintings from the Northern Renaissance period. The works of Jan van Eyck, Pieter Brueghel, and Hieronymus Bosch are filled with richly detailed passages, often featuring wildly inventive and richly imaginative creatures, animals, and hybrid forms. The students chose minute details from which they…

How about making an Etruscan Tomb from everyday household objects? Ms. Bonfiglio’s Grade 6 group constructed their own Personalised Etruscan Tombs, filling shoeboxes and vitrines with personal artefacts, narrative drawings on lining paper, newspaper cuttings, trinkets and bric-a-brac. This reimagining of the Etruscan Tombs combined sculpture, drawing, bricolage and collage, with personalised votive objects and…

Mr. Donnelly’s Grade 6 class have just wrapped up a quick drawing project on Ancient Greek Theatre masks. Students focused on the exaggerated expressions of various masks from both Greek Tragedy and Comedy. Students were given a circular card within which they rendered one large mask, and a number of surrounding masks. Students demonstrated exceptional…

Ms. Bonfiglio’s 6th Grade class made the most amazing masks inspired by Egyptian Art. Students demonstrated exceptional flair and innovation in drawing from Egyptian Mask motifs and developing their own distinctive and expressive mask-making approach.

We have just wrapped up working on the Byzantine Art unit with Grade 7. For the final project, we focused on mosaics made from gesso, gouache, and card. Mosaics are an exercise in planning and patience. Planning: Mosaics challenge the student’s drawing ability in setting down a guide image to work with. The students must…

What is your favourite song? Imagine that song as a colour What kind of rhythm has the song? Imagine the rhythm as mark making How does the song make you feel? Imagine that feeling as a continuous line of colour This imaginative and playful exercise blends elements of art (line, colour, rhythm, mark-making) with elements…

How do you work with a material as flimsy and light as tissue paper? Grade 6 Art were presented with this exact challenge when they set about rendering a Sumerian Standing Figure using only tissue paper and masking tape. This exercise is an excellent way to learn about sculpting using the delicate manipulation of material.…