Our Art Exhibition Project Bright Horizons Ashbourne Preschool Classes March to June 2012

One day Alison brought in a box of painting tools and materials that she had used in Art College to show us. Whilst we were rummaging through the box, Aaron asked “why do you have that spoon?” when he noticed that among the paints, inks and brushes there were spoons, butter knives and flat plastic squares. Alison explained that in college she used the plastic square (palette) to mix paint colours together and the knives and spoons were used to apply this paint to different surfaces/materials to create interesting textures.

We soon discovered for ourselves that painting with acrylic paints can create different effects than painting with poster paints. Ethan especially liked the way that “the paint stays the way I want it”. We explored acrylic paints on paper, card, board and canvas using sticks, brushes, spoons, spatulas and knives. Kyle thought that “the paintbrush is better than the knife. I painted Bart Simpson.”

We also explored watercolour paints and discovered that they give different results than other paints. Leah especially liked that “the paint mixes on the page – it moves!” We experimented with how much water we could use with the paints and how little water we could use. Leah noticed that “this paint moves with the water. See, it changes. Watch! Look at the colours spread down the page.” We discovered that brushes were best for applying watercolours. This made us think about what else we could use to apply paint. We explored lots of other ways to paint using our hands and feet, by putting paint on a ball and rolling it across a page and by blowing paint using straws. It was great fun!

After learning about painting, we talked about famous artists and their paintings and techniques. Some of our favourite paintings were:

“The Scream” by Edvard Munch

“The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt

Ava: “It’s orange and there’s a stage

Kyle: “They’re having a party – it’s all

there to walk on.”

yellow and green.”

“Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh Lola: “There is lots and lots of circles.”

“Number 6” by Jackson Pollock Sam: “I think there are birds in it and the man’s walking on the ceiling and dirt and muck and some leaves.” Cian: “I can see hands. They’re gluing and eating. It has loads of pictures on it.”

Another day, Alison showed us print-work she did in college. There were woodcuts, lino prints and etchings on metal sheets. We had never seen anything like these before and spent a lot of time feeling the carved out areas of the lino, wood and metal.

Alison told us about how she used to design prints by doing drawings first. Killian and Marc drew these designs on paper. With Alison’s help, we copied the drawings onto erasers and carved them out to create our own print-blocks! “This is my happy face print” said Killian when we were finished.

We also made handmade printing plates. These plates were made by gluing found objects and textures to cardboard which was then painted with PVA glue to keep it all in place. Vilanda thought that her piece looked like “lots of treasure”. Many of the children created their own print plates using recycled materials. Ieva covered her piece in glitter – “My picture is beautiful, the glitter makes it so sparkly”.

After this, we looked at pictures of sculptures made using tyres, sand, driftwood, and clay. We then made our own sculptures with sand, clay, soil, gloop, blocks, paper and dough. Maya enjoyed exploring building with gloop – “it feels really sticky. Look, I can hold it up and it falls down onto the table, look!” Fionn chose not to do anything messy as he told Karen – “I don’t want to do that, it will destroy my new Spiderman t-shirt!” Kian used Moon Dough to create a tower – “it feels like sand and bits my tower is very rough.”

Although this was great fun, many of these methods do not create sculptures that last very long. Alannah decided that gloop was “too messy – it will rip the page.” Elliott and Nicky felt that the clay was the best medium for creating sculptures as anything made in clay will last a long time. Vilanda was surprised that the clay was “so cold” when she was using it. Another great thing about using clay was that when it had dried we could paint it whatever way we wished! To finish our Art Project, we wanted to hold an exhibition to show our work. We already know Mary from Ashbourne Library because she comes to visit us to read us stories and sing songs.

We asked Mary if we could hold our exhibition in her library and she told us we could in June. Our opening night on Thursday 7th June was a great success. We all went to the library and showed off our work to our friends and family. We were very proud of all our hard work and achievements.

Our teachers Ayleen, Karen and Ruth made a “Visual Diary” to show all of our artistic experiments. Alison made a leaflet with all our names so everyone knew we were the artists. Forty-one of us took part in our Art Exhibition. Sculpture

Mixed Media

Paintings

Links to Aistear

Well-being We developed our relationships with each other, with our teachers, and within our community throughout this project. We had opportunities to further develop our confidence and learnt to respect each other and our artwork. We had a say in our own learning and development. We developed our fine and gross motor skills and co-ordination through the various activities. We expressed ourselves freely and had new experiences of the arts.

Identity and Belonging We learnt that we do not all enjoy the same activities and that it is important to respect this. We were able to express our own ideas, preferences and needs. Our interests were reflected in both our classroom environment and our local library. We learnt that members of our community are welcome in our centre and classroom.

Communicating We had many opportunities to interact with each other and our teachers by listening, discussing and taking turns in conversation. We used language to clarify our thoughts, ideas and feelings and to problem-solve throughout this project and made art to reflect this. We read art books for fun and to gain information and broaden our understanding of our world. We explored a wide variety of mark-making materials and implements to express ourselves. We expressed ourselves through cutting, drawing, gluing, sticking, painting, building, printing, and sculpting. We showed confidence in trying out the new ideas and materials.

Exploring and Thinking We had many chances to explore and experiment in our environment and to use our new skills to manipulate materials. As we progressed through the project, many of us showed that we were able to gather and use information from different sources – we were then able to use this information to explore and develop working theories about the new materials we were presented with. We made marks and used drawings, paintings and sculpture to record objects, events and ideas. We demonstrated growing confidence in being able to do things for ourselves. We had opportunities to address challenges and cope with frustrations. We were made to feel confident that we would be listened to and taken seriously by others.