On Wednesday 10 June, pupils, parents and staff of St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, Camden, eagerly gathered in the school hall to view an art exhibition that featured artwork from every child in the school.
Pupils worked with Esther Adesigbin, the school’s artist in residence, to produce individual pieces of art that reflected each child’s best work. The purpose of the exhibition was to give every child the opportunity to express themselves through art, and for pupils and teachers to develop their artistic skills. Headteacher Mr Sean Cranitch told me that the school builds on the talents of every child and to give them the opportunity to express themselves in a variety of ways. In addition to artistic activities, the school offers free recorder and trumpet lessons to pupils, and a wide variety of after-school activities such as Mandarin classes.
Each class used a particular theme to inspire their art and each child brought their individual flare and ideas to their piece. Nursery class looked at the recycled sculptures of African artist, Romuald Hazoume to make photographic art, whilst reception studied the pattern marking of Friedensreich Hundertwasser to create pastel patterns.
Year One investigated mono printing and painting on plastic to produce their flower pictures. Year Two looked at the ‘Surprise’, by Henri Rousseau, and used water colour paints to create their own jungle and ‘surprise’ animal.
Year Three made a ‘sea’ out of water and powder paint, and added drawn and collaged fish whereas year four studied Vincent Van Gogh to paint a night sky for their phoenixes to fly through. Year Five followed a pop art theme and studied Andy Warhol, using charcoal and bright paint to create their own pop art portraits. Year Six were inspired by their studies about the Vikings to depict 3D Viking ships amongst stormy seas.
Pupils had clearly put a great amount of thought into their work, drawing on inspiration from a variety of areas to put their unique stamp on their work. Stephanie Joy in Year Five called her pop art self-portrait ‘Red Joy’ which was inspired by her name, which in Greek means ‘crown’. To signify ‘joy’, she wanted the piece to be very festive, so used bright colours to create this mood. Jordan and Archelann from Year Six explained how they had developed their pieces based on Viking long ships. They initially made 3D models of Viking long ships which were photographed and painted a sea backdrop, using the paint to create 3D effects.
