Art Club 

Art club is ran on a Monday in the studio with Miss Eaton. Art Club is an exciting opportunity for anyone who enjoys drawing and painting. We explore the use of different media to create artistic pieces and practise drawing and painting techniques. We are a small, friendly group of all abilities who look forward to exhibiting our masterpieces in school and on the school's website.

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, everyone at Art club had great fun creating their very own Chinese dragon. As a special treat, Mrs Burke and Mrs Eaton gave the children a Chinese red packet with chocolate coins inside. Red packets are a Chinese tradition and are given to loved ones at the start of the new year, to bestow good luck and good health on the recipient.

In preparation for a spooky Halloween, we have been busy making scary full moon pictures using oil pastels. First, we coloured a large circle to represent the moon. then, we blended colours out ending in a black sky. We used our fingers to blend the oil pastels in order to create an air of mystery and the supernatural. Finally, when we had achieved the look we wanted, we cut out bats from a paper template and stuck them on to the background. The effect was terrifyingly good!

We've had great fun this week, discovering the art of foil embossing and painting. To achieve this glittering effect, we drew an intricate heart design onto foil using a blunt, soft pencil. We then coloured in areas of our design using permanent markers and mounted the finished work on a  piece of coloured card. We couldn't wait to take them home and give them to a loved one.

Wow! Here, as promised, are our stunning pictures of The Northern Lights. We all had an enjoyable time creating these beautiful pictures and are very pleased with the results.

The effect was created using chalk pastels on black card, smudging and blending the colours with our fingers.  Finally, the pictures were sprayed with fixative to hold the pastels on the card. It was very messy but great fun. 

This week in Art Club, we learnt about The Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis). After watching a film about these magical lights, we experimented with pastel crayons to create the mysterious colours in a winter sky. Now we have had time to practise our technique we hope to show you our finished scenes next week.

Our talented art clubbers have been creating colourful pictures of fireworks. Using only chalk pastels and black sugar paper, these spectacular pictures really capture the atmosphere of Bonfire Night.

We had great fun finishing our haunted house pictures and we think they're frighteningly good.

The background colour was applied with wet tissue paper and when this was dry we tore away the tissue strips to reveal the vivid colours underneath.

The haunted house was painted with black poster paint, leaving the windows to allow the background colours to show through. The window frame details were added with black marker pens and lastly, the moon and highlights were added with white chalk.

Everyone at Art Club wishes you a 'spooktacular' half term holiday.

We finally finished our spider's web wax resist pictures and we were very pleased with the results.

With only one week to go before we break up, we were keen to begin our next project which involved 'painting' with tissue paper. We very much look forward to sharing our pictures with you next week. Be prepared to be spooked.

This afternoon at Art Club, we've been exploring water colour effects with wax resist. First, we drew a spider's web with a white, wax crayon. Then, we painted over the paper with a colour wash of green, black and purple. Whilst the paint was still wet, we sprinkled some sea salt over the paper. We wait with great anticipation to see what effect the salt has on the paint.

Next week, we will make spiders to add a third dimension to our paintings.

To coincide with the autumn equinox, everyone at Art Club is looking forward to creating some wonderful, seasonal works of art. Before the nights draw in, we wanted to recreate the dramatic sunsets we have seen recently in the evening sky.

We began a two-week project, which involved learning about tints and tone. It will take a while for our paint to dry and then we will add the trees. We'll let you see the finished paintings next week.

In an effort to banish the horrible weather we have been having lately, in Art Club we have been creating tropical sunset pictures. After studying photographs, everyone was given a piece of A3 paper and a set of soft pastels. To create the interesting effect of sunset colours in the evening sky, we used our fingers to blend the colours and then create reflections in the sea. The silhouettes were pre-printed and added before mounting. As you can see, the finished pictures make a stunning display.

​This week's Art Club project was to draw a self portrait, using sketching pencils of different grades. Although some of us found it challenging, we enjoyed the experience and look forward to more sketching opportunities in the future.

This week at Art Club, we created some stunning paintings of trees in moonlit snow. We were really pleased with the results and hope you enjoy looking at them too.

We have been very busy over the last two weeks, creating these fantastic Christmas wreaths, with our self portraits in the centre. Firstly we drew our self portraits on cartridge paper then created the wreath by drawing around our hands on green paper. We cut out these shapes and arranged them around our portraits to form a wreath that resembled holly. For a final festive touch, we added red glittery berries and a bow. We were delighted with the results and couldnt wait to take them home.

Everyone at Art Club would like to wish you a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

This afternoon at Westacre, we held our Harvest Festival. Continuing this theme, we thought it would be interesting to have a go at still-life studies of pumpkins, using charcoal.

Some of us had never drawn with charcoal before and we were delighted with the results.

We hope you like them too.​

A very warm but belated welcome to our Art Club members. We have all been very creative since the beginning of the new term and we're delighted to share with you our wonderful art work.

Autumn is such an inspirational season so we couldn't wait to get started on our bubble wrap printed trees. These colourful pictures were created using a colour wash, paper cut outs and poster paints. The paint was applied with bubble wrap and printed on to the page, to give the illusion of leaves.

Continuing our autumn theme, we made some leaf rubbing pictures. These fabulous pictures can be seen on display in the art room.

As the weather has been so sunny and hot, we decided we would make sunset pictures. We began by studying photographs of sunsets, looking carefully at how the colours of light blend across the sky. Then we applied layers of very wet,  coloured tissue to watercolour paper, in the hope of achieving that effect. We then painted the silhouettes that really make our pictures come to life!

Taking advantage of the lovely weather, we took our drawing boards and pencils outside and had a go at drawing leaves and flowers in our beautiful school grounds​.

We all produced some interesting sketches with charcoal and pencils.

Everyone at Art Club has had great fun creating collage pictures of vases of flowers. First, we painted our own papers, using water colour, to create the elements of our picture. Then, when they were dry, we cut out petals, leaves, stalks, a vase and a table top. These cut out pieces were applied to the background with glue and details were added using colouring pens. We think they look blooming marvellous!

We have now welcomed our new members to Art Club. It's great to see so many young people showing such an interest in all things 'arty'. We are really looking forward to producing some wonderful artwork and promise to keep you up-to-date with our latest creations.

This week at Art Club, we decided to put away our paintbrushes and have a go at creating beautiful art with materials not normally associated with painting and drawing. Firstly, we cut up some discarded cardboard boxes to use as our "canvas". Then using PVA glue, we took lengths of wool and applied them to the card to create lines, shapes and patterns. This was very sticky but great fun. Currently, our work is drying on the rack, to be completed next week, when we look forward to showing you our finished pieces.

Heralding the arrival of Spring (Haha!), we've been busy creating tree pictures applying paint in a variety of ways. First, we applied a colour wash and when this was dry, we experimented mixing colours for our trees. We began by painting the trunk and branches using poster paint and a brush. To create the effect of newly emerging leaves or blossom, we applied the paint with a cotton bud. To complete the image, watery green paint was brushed along the bottom of the paper and then blown through a drinking straw: this random technique gave the illusion of fresh green grass.​

We are delighted with our Bolang Gu (rattle or monkey drum), not only did they look good, they sounded good too. Before the children left for home, they were each given a "red packet" containing gold, chocolate coins.

hong bao (Cantonese) and yasui qian (压岁钱 /yaa-sway chyen/) Chinese = red packets

Hong boa is a way of sending good luck wishes for the coming year. The significance of the red envelopes is the red paper, not the money inside. Wrapping in red is said to bestow more happiness and blessings on the receiver.

Friday 16^th February is the start of the Chinese New Year and to celebrate, in Art Club, we have been designing and making our own Bolang Gu (rattle drum).​ We began by painting paper plates with a mixture of red acrylic paint and PVA glue. Our designs will be red and gold as traditionally these colours are considered to bring luck. Finally, we planned the design for each side of the drum, ready to apply next week. We look forward to keeping you up-to-date with our progress. 

In anticipation of the snow, the weather forecasters have promised, we have created some pictures of people catching snowflakes. We had great fun creating these crazy characters, using mixed media. Firstly, we drew an up-turned face on to blank paper then snowflakes with white wax crayon, around the face. We then painted all the paper with a blue, colour wash and watched how the wax crayon resisted the wash to create a snowy effect. When this was dry, we had fun colouring the character using chalk pastel crayons, blending the colours to give a 3D effect. They look so cool!

At Art Club this week, we have produced some 'spooktacular' pictures of haunted houses in silhouette. There's no denying, they are frighteningly good! We hope you enjoy looking at them.

At Art Club this week, we have continued with our autumn theme and produced paintings of trees where the paint was applied in layers of colour, using our fingers. This was a very enjoyable way of making pictures and we were pleased with our results.

Being the "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness", and lucky enough to have such amazing trees in our school grounds, this week in Art Club, we have been trying our hand at leaf printing. ​We hope you like the colourful pictures we created.

To kick off the Autumn term, Art Club have been using leaves to create some amazing artwork. Exploring the technique of rubbing, we took a selection of leaves from around the school grounds and made pictures with pencil crayons, wax crayons, charcoal and pastels. ​We hope you like the results.

Once again, our amazing Art Clubbers have astounded us with their talent. We have been busy drawing self-portraits and creating antique-looking silver frames to complement our work. We began by transforming a simple card frame into a frame of “antique embossed silver”. To achieve this effect, we applied patterns of string, glued with PVA, to the card frame. When this was dry, we covered the frame in tinfoil, carefully pressing the foil over the string pattern beneath. Next, we brushed the frame with shoe polish, to achieve a burnished metal effect. When the frames were finished, we each drew our portraits on cartridge paper using graphite pencils of various grades to help give a three dimensional appearance to our drawing. Here are the first of our portraits to be completed. We are delighted how they turned out and hope you like them too. If anyone is interested In joining Art Club, please see Mrs Burke or Mrs Bennett for a consent form.

Everyone at Art Club would like to wish you a very happy Easter.  We have created these amazing Easter cards, using a technique where the paint or ink is blown through a drinking straw. We added googly eyes and beaks and we think you'll agree that they look "eggs-ellent".