Recently, our Grade 7 students took a dive into the vibrant world of street art, graffiti, stencil art, and of course, the enigmatic Banksy! We had some seriously deep discussions about art – the market, valuation, what qualifies as art, and what doesn't. After our art-philosophy session, these young creatives rolled up their sleeves and designed their very own stencils.
We had a blast experimenting with two different techniques. First, we made impressions with simple sponges, and then we unleashed the power of spray paint on the walls. It was a project that sparked tons of excitement and creativity. From Coca-Cola cans to fierce wolves and elegantly beautiful floral patterns, our students' imaginations knew no bounds. I wish I could've snapped more photos, but this project had us all on our toes! The artwork you see here is crafted by Jingmae, who goes by the name "Wolf." Her journey is quite remarkable. She joined us in Grade 5 without any prior art experience, and her confidence was a bit shaky at first. But fast forward to today, after a full year of dedication, I am proud to say that she has truly grown into a remarkable artist.
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Every year, we get to roll out the artistic red carpet for guest artists, and this time around, we hit the jackpot with not one, not two, but THREE amazing Tibetan artists! They graced our school with a fantastic Thangka workshop that left students, parents, and teachers beaming with joy.
Before we even picked up a paintbrush, we delved into the wonders of Tibet and the mesmerizing world of Thangka. This art form is so incredibly relaxing; It's been used for centuries in meditation, it really works like a charm. Everyone loved the experience – parents, teachers, and, of course, our talented students. We enjoyed it so much that we're already clearing space in our calendar for next year, eagerly anticipating their return. 6th graders were learning about Neolithic back in their home classroom. After seeing this oportunity we connected both curriculums, art and home room. This is what we came up with. We ended up having a small competition to see whose arrow were shoot the further ! We are very excited as we recently bough a beautiful kiln where we can fire a significant amount of clay together. These awesome coins are the second batch we fired you can check them in the video below! 6th graders learned about the Great Seurat and Pointillism! June came up with a new art movement... Fingerism! (check the video below) Our Grade 4 students were studying the Ice Age, so we decided to transform the corridor into an Ice Cave. It's been also freezing lately, probably the coldest days we've had in 20 years here in Beijing, and feels like even inside the school.
So, here's what we did: we took some recycled paper from last year's Early Human cave project and got creative. We repainted those papers using acrylic paint and sponges to give them an icy, cave-like look. Now, our corridor looks like a cool ice cave, adding a unique touch to the school environment! It's as if we've stepped back into the Ice Age right here in our school corridors. This is one of my favorite projects ever! Materials: Wood block, hanger, woman sock and acrylic paint. We just received a doonation of these amazing digital frames! We are using post-it notes to create this art work. The students first designed their work on a paper and then make it real! Can you guess what is coming?
Here you can see some of the projects we have done during this past wild times! We were working online for at least 6 months! Today was set up day in the school, first day (without students) first week of 2020-2021. I am really looking forward to see the students! In the meantime you can enjoy some of the work from last academic year.
JASMINE:
Jaime, as you might have noticed, in each of the eight sections in my drawing, there is a label. There is fairy tales section, criminal history, Greek myths,Chinese WORD stories, American history, Roman history,Chinese myths and English stories. In each of these sections are two scenes or figures. They are tiny and black. You have to find them, and tell me what stories scenes or people they are. If you can’t guess it, or you did, let me know and I will send you the answers. I hope you have fun guessing them!!! ------- JAMIE: Hi Jasmine!! I really love your Zentangle! it looks gorgeous! ok, I think I found them in all sections except in the fairy tale! I haven't found any in that one... any clue? Thanks -------- JASMINE: There are two plants in the fairy tale section. Two humanoids, very tiny, are there. In the upper corner is a flower. In it is thumb girl from a fairy tale. In the down left corner is a leafy long plant, climbing up it is a tiny figure which is jack and the beanstalk. -------- JAMIE: I can see them and I love them! So as I told you I found most of the figures/scenes but I can't guess them all. In the English section, it seems there is a Santa Claus? In the Roman section there are some gladiators? but in the other sections, I can't tell much 🙁 I would love to hear more about this amazing drawing! ------- JASMINE: Yes, in the English section is Santa and the Tooth fairy. In the Roman section is emperor Commodus, who loves gladiators, and the two people standing on two hill tops are Romulus and his twin brother. In the criminal history is the robber couple, Bonnie and her husband, and Jack the Ripper, who I’m sure you’ve heard of. On the path he went there is a envelope, which is the letter he wrote to the police, and is now in the Scotland Yard Museum. In the American history is the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Boston Tea Party. In the Chinese word story, one is 买椟还珠 and 狼狈为奸, which you probably didn’t know. The Chinese myths are, as the English translation goes, Eight Immortals crossing the Ocean and Shen Nong tastes a hundred herbs. The fairy tales are, as I’ve said, are Jack and the Beanstalk and Thumb Girl. The Greek myths are Hades giving Persephone a pomegranate and Prometheus bound to the rocks. Was this game fun? I hope so!!!!! Finally we got our hands into plaster!! We are pretty excited with all the possibilities that it has to offer! This is just a first test, stay tuned for more coming soon!
Grade 6 started today their project about Pointillism. After discussion about the art movement itself and its biggest artist we started to work on our projects. I am truly amazed on how the students learned about the color theory and the Pointillism technique. Stay tuned for the final result (I can't wait)
I am pretty excited with this unit about Nomadics and Tuaregs. I was lucky enough to live in the Morocco desert for some time and get to know about Tuareg's lifestyle. On the first day, we talked about a whole lot of stuff about Tuaregs. It was exciting because students knew about them, they worked in their home classroom beforehand and some of them even made a presentation about them, so it was extra interesting because we had a pretty cool discussion. We watched two very short videos about Tuareg Music. The first one about traditional music and the second one was about more contemporary music (actually one of my favourite bands) Collaborative art project between students, teachers and admin for the 三十 anniversary of the school!. Theme: draw something that you love in our school!
This year, get ready for some paper recycling madness in the art room! We're on a mission to recycle every last scrap of paper we create. Once we've nailed down the technique, worked out all the logistics, and basically become recycling wizards, we're setting our sights on recycling ALL the school's scrap paper. It's about time we make the world a little greener! 🌍♻️ We talked about life and work of David Hockney with our Grades 5 and 6. We had a very nice and deep discussion about art, art auctions and the art market after knowing that David Hockney sold one art piece for more than 90 million $. It is also really interesting becasue Hockney is one of the few big artist that is using iPad for creating art. Shiraz wanted to do for the art show a project with foam and colours. After research, she came up with this idea so she was testing it on her playground time. Stay tuned for the final project. This time she printed it on a scrap piece of paper, the final one will be on a canvas! Grades 5 and 6 just studied the wonderful world of Pop Art and everything that surrounds it, not only art. We only talked about two of the greatest pop artists, Andy Warhol of course and Roy Lichtenstein, one of my personal favorites.
Romero Britto inspired all our sixth graders to create these wonderful art works. Romero combines elements of Cubism, Pop Art and Graffiti painting on his work. His lines are very bold and he likes to use very bright colours. We talked about his life and work and after discussion we made these master pieces.
Ava has been obsessed with Mandalas lately. She used to come almost every playground asking if she could draw some small Mandalas. One of those days I asked her if she wanted to make a proper one on a bigger size than the ones she usually made. She obviously was excited. I gave her a really nice quality paper, metallic markers and few more supplies. She ended up with this masterpiece. Before she started to work on it we talked for some time about the origins of Mandalas, who makes them, why they are made, etc.. after discussion I played this video for her. Also when she was working I found some Tibetan Buddhist chanting so she felt a bit more in the mood for the work. It was a great experience! Our Grades 5 & 6 have been working on a paper mache project. They first designed what they wanted to make on a KD board structure, assembled and then messiness started! We applied our paper mache secret formula on the structure with newspaper stripes (if anyone is interested in the secret formula, just pop by the art room, we will be very happy to share it with you) Next and last lesson was to paint it all. We got letters, numbers, shapes, logos even some book characters!
Portable homemade lightbox photography studio made by students, for students. Get ready, some high quality pictures coming!
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Positive, Creative Space.Archives
December 2023
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