“The status of primary art here at Dulwich College has clearly risen under John’s stewardship.”
Year 1 Collage Pizza
Students discussed the colours and shapes found in pizzas and their various ingredients and toppings, from cheese and tomato sauce to olives and red onions. They developed and honed their spatial skills by cutting, pasting, and manipulating tissue and construction papers to create their own slice of collage pizza.
Year 2 Candy Houses
For their unit centered of the theme of Home, students were encouraged to be as imaginative as possible in creating their own Home Sweet Home. Colour pencil studies served as the starting point for 3-dimensional candy houses, which they constructed from cardboard and embellished with an array of materials, including corrugated card, chenille stems, popsicle sticks, sequins, buttons, and fiber fill.
Year 3 Canopic Jars
Students learned about the ideas, symbols, and conventions of ancient Egyptian art, and more specifically, canopic jars– vessels for storing and protecting the organs of deceased pharaohs in the afterlife. They practiced communicating value and form in colour pencil studies, and they developed skills in ceramics by creating a canopic jar in clay.
Year 4 Hot Air Balloons
As part of their unit on Transportation, students constructed papier-mâché hot air balloons using balloons, newsprint, and paper cups. In their improvised designs for the envelope and basket, they explored mark-making and art elements of line, pattern, and colour. They were encouraged to use lines to break up the surface of the envelope into smaller shapes and patterns, as well as to 'take the line for a walk' when it was not immediately obvious how they would proceed. Students were also encouraged to consider how they would use colour in their designs, either to complement, to contrast, or to harmonize.
Year 5 Fish
Students used a range of different mediums and techniques to produce imaginative, highly patterned images of tropical and exotic fish. They conducted oil pastel studies, where they experimented with subtractive techniques; they made mixed media collages using newspaper, paint, and chalk pastels; and they also worked with printmaking techniques to produce colourful polyblock prints.
Year 6 Victorian Teapots
Coinciding with their history lessons on Victorian Britain, students discussed the origins of British tea culture and examined the varied designs of Victorian tea sets. Students practiced communicating value, shape, and form in observational charcoal drawings, and they later practiced colour mixing in their paintings.
