In year 6 we have been focusing on graffiti art and the children had the opportunity to visit a graffiti exhibition at Leicester musems & Gallery – Graffwerk and MBD presented an exciting and immersive journey into the world of graffiti art. Using large scale projections and in-depth interviews, this beautifully animated exhibition uncovers fascinating stories from some of the most high-profile graffiti writers of today.
They also have been focusing on the work of Banksy and the meaning behind his pieces. We spoke about how graffiti artists create work to send strong and powerful messages that may be of conflict. In our topic unit we focused on human rights and the children used their knowledge to create a final piece in the style of Banksy related to social justice and human rights.
We also walked around Leicester town center and looked at the graffiti. The children had the opportunity to watch an artist who had been invited from France – he was spray painting one of the first stories ever told. The children identified legal and illegal graffiti work locally around Leicester and shared their thoughts about the work’s meaning.
Artists from all over the world came together to showcase an impressive wealth of talent which has gone on to serve as inspiration for further artistic activities within the city of Leicester. A platform of creative collaboration on a monumental scale Bring the Paint delivered beyond expectations.
Year 5 used view finders to sketch the nature around them.
Exploration in drawing
Year 4 practised their drawing skills, inspired by Louise Goodman’s coil pots.
Kara Walker
Year 5 explored American artist Kara Walker.
Inspired by her work (and Greek pottery) they created silhouette images to represent their life and memories.
Exploration in drawing
Year 5 used Ancient Greek statues and buildings as a stimulus for drawing.
Year 3 are proud of their printing
Uplands had their very own pop-up art gallery this week. All classes put in a lot of hard work over this term to produce incredibly high-quality art work to be professionally mounted and framed which was exhibited to the whole school and parents. Pupils got the chance to evaluate and analyse all the creative works created by the whole school . They loved showing their work to teachers, friends, parents and carers. Thank you to all the artists – you made a huge effort!
We would like to thank the rest of the school for their kind words and evaluations of our artwork. Year 6 invited the rest of the school to visit their very own art exhibition today. They have been working all term on the theme of social injustice, with links to graffiti and self-esteem, which gave them inspiration for their final piece. They even used real spray paint with the aid of a teacher. The children really enjoyed the project which began by looking at famous graffiti artists including Banksy and Keith Haring. They soon moved on to working with stencils, a favourite technique of the mysterious Banksy, before having a go at planning, drawing, and then creating their own stencil. After, we added inspirational words and phrases to our art, to add to the concept of self-esteem and belief.
Year 3 created their own clay dragon eye inspired by their spring term book ‘The Boy Who Grew Dragons’ by Andy Shepherd. They practiced joining pieces of clay using scoring and slip, explored the effects different utensils had on the clay, then designed and created their own unique dragon eye.
They even received a personal video message from Andy Shepherd on Twitter, who was in such awe of the eyes.
Year 6 have started their work on sculpture and this week looked at the work of Giacometti. The children explored how sculptured figures can show movement and emotion.
This week Year 6 visited the Attenborough Arts centre to explore the ‘Playing in Wonderland’ exhibition by an artist called Mohammad Barrangi. The children were invited to step into the artist’s imaginative world of fantastical characters and colourful scenery. They were inspired and able to understand the art from Barrangi’s perspective. The children explored what life is like in Iran and had a chance to express their feelings about the art from his perspective.
