Showcase: Art • Dance • Drama • Music
Art 24
Old and New – a richer Art experience through traditional and modern techniques and materials by Peter Hinckley, Head of Art & Design (Primary)
One of the key objectives for Art across the Infant and Junior Schools is to provide a wide range of enjoyable, positively challenging practical experiences in Art through the exploration of a diverse range of materials and techniques. With our ever increasing digital world, it is vital that Art embraces the new technologies and materials. However, it is equally important that the children enjoy the diversity of Art that comes through working with both new and traditional materials and techniques. At Tanglin, the Art curriculum taps into a wide spectrum of media available to our students from iPad digital technology to more traditional ceramics and painting techniques. In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) of Nursery and Reception, the children experience a diverse ‘hands on’ experience using a wide range of materials including paper, fabrics, plastics and recycled materials. Art activities also incorporate more modern materials and techniques including digital photography and the use of iPads to create vivid images in a painterly style. Whilst large scale collaborative collage, modelling and painting artworks reinforce the value of using more traditional materials and methods as well as nurturing social and cooperative skills. A highlight of Art in the EYFS is the embracement of a multitude of materials and new and traditional techniques as a springboard to enthusiastically develop the children’s Art skills and foster creativity. The enrichment of an Art curriculum through a broad and balanced experience carries through into Year 1 and 2 where the children are provided with ample opportunity to explore digital media in partnership with drawing, printing and painting. More modernist approaches to using natural materials and styles are also
In Year 5 the children have thoroughly enjoyed a marriage of traditional and digital techniques in their study of Singapore buildings. Using the latest ground-breaking 3D printing technology and 3D doodler pens they have explored the elements of form, shape and line using computer applications to transfer their ideas into a finished 3D model. In addition to developing the children’s greater understanding of line, shape and tone, Year 5 students were taught the technique of 2 point perspective and the use of tonal variations with pencil work to render a 3D image on paper. explored through using artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Keith Haring. A clear skills-based focus on colour theory including colour mixing in paint, grades of pencil in drawing and the effect of texture in 3D media helps to develop the children’s foundation skills which can then be applied to more innovative digital media. It’s exciting to see the enthusiastic response to new technologies, yet equally, other more traditional art techniques have secured their value. Children today, as of yesterday, love the tactile experience of painting, drawing and 3D media. For example, using the Year 3 trip to the zoo as a stimulus, the children created their own paper mache animal sculptures using a skeleton framework of newspaper. The direct hands on experience and tactile elements of this activity cannot be underemphasised in developing the children’s direct spatial awareness of form and shape and in the development of their modelling skills. Similarly, in Year 4 the elements of colour and texture are explored. However, rather than using the media of paint and pencil, this term the students used iPads to manipulate photographs to change the colour, pattern and texture of images. Again, this was paralleled with the more traditional techniques in their pastel study of Georgia O’Keeffe flowers to develop their skills in blending and effective use of colour.
Year 6’s Art this term has focused on the importance of developing art and design ideas through sketchbooks and mood boards that convey the students thought processes in their design work. The completed boards included annotations written using Word, printed images as well as completed acrylic paintings and paint mixing samples. The work was then exhibited in the Year 6 unit. Throughout Year 6 the integration of traditional and digital techniques have worked successfully from Andy Warhol inspired digital ‘paintings’ to more traditional techniques of silk screen printing and painting techniques such as colour washes, the impasto effect and under-painting.