Well Happy New Year. Where did January go though?
I am looking forward to meeting all the new Heaton Students and wish last year's leavers best wishes as they begin High School life. Don't forget to come back to show me your art work.
One of my Christmas presents, to myself, was 'Global Model Village' Slinkachu's work set in different cities of the world. Amazing how a change of scale can produce such a change of perspective on everyday activities. Click on the image below to see an interview with the artist.

Then why not have ago yourself.

Seasonal Astronomy

I hope you are all having a happy, safe  and Peaceful Christmas.
I have always been fascinated by people who integrate their interests, experiences and ideas into their artwork. If you have the sort of inquiring mind that is fascinated by life then where do you draw the line, everything is interesting. Leonardo is a prime example of this phenomenon.
When I was at school I studies Art and Science, this was considered peculiar. Later in life I married a scientist. Some of my pupils at the time did wonder what we talked about, not understanding the similar approaches we had to our work,  a natural curiosity, a wish to explore, to research, to experiment, etc.
This morning I was listening to Radio National. Alan Bean, the US astronaut who was on the second landing on the moon in 1969, was being interviewed. He now spends his time painting his experiences. He has even incorpotated some moon dust and material that went into space into some of his work, just as  Matt Gauldie embedded brick dust from the Christchurch earthquake in his Earthquake Patrol.  He sounded a lovely, gentle and humble person. Have a look at his work.
Best wishes
Fiona
Alan Bean

Slinkachu

Extension Art Project

These are some pictures I have created in the style of Slinkachu ( see Slinkachu or follow link on the Heaton Art Blog March 2012 post)

He is a British artist who

takes photographs of small model people in big, real life places. My photographs were done

by painting small models to look like heaton people  and placing them around the school. I like the way Slinkachu

uses the people to portray real life and the way he uses humour in his pictures.

Liam Helleur

Liam has composed his photos so as to comment on some familiar school activities. We thought that they lent themselves to a caption competition.

The best submissions for a title for any of the images will receive a small prize. Please send entries to me before November 30^th.

Mrs Taylor

A

B

C

D

E

Citius, Altius, Fortius

During art technology, we created clay bowls centered around images of 'sport in action'

that incorporated our Olympics theme.

I chose an image of myself competing in a cross country

event because of the excitement and passion this sport provides. We also selected a motto to accompany our image that inspires us. Mine reads as

 “The gull that flies the highest sees the furthest.” - John Bach from Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Arlia Schurr year 8

Olympic Enquiry Topic.

Part of this topic involved looking at the images of athletes from the Ancient Olympic Games. Many of the sports we see depicted on Greek pottery are easy to recognize. The images provide us with much information about sport and the important role it played in the ancient world.

Students were asked to find images of themselves participating in an Olympic sport which they were involved in or were passionate about.  They used these images to decorate their terracotta bowls using traditional techniques.

I am sure any Olympic athlete, ancient or modern, would recognize the commitment and energy Arlia has shown in her ceramic piece.

Fiona Taylor

Transitional Cathedral

Signing my tube

Painting in pairs

Laminate beams

I have just been helping get the cardboard tubes ready for the Transitional Cathedral. Each giant tube needs at least 3 coats of a sealer to make it waterproof. Painters work in pairs , trying not to bump into each other. After a while you get a rhythm going with your partner working your way along the tube. The sealer dries quite fast so you don't have long to get the finish just right.
It was not possible to make the tubes as thick as Shigeru Ban, the architect, would like in Christchurch, so each tube has a laminated wood beam running through it.  There are 500 tubes to be painted. Each volunteer is allowed to sign a tube on the inside. Large bolts hold the tubes in place.
It will be fun when the building is finally up to guess which is my tube. I will probably be judging the quality of the painting too!

Links
Transitional Cathedral Project
Window design
Shigeru Ban Architects

Artyfactory

Try out the ARTYFACTORY, quizzes, lessons and art appreciation

Ryan's holiday project

Below is Ryan Bishop's holiday project. To my great delight he took on board a 'what next idea' and applied it to his black and white drypoint print. Well done Ryan, considered and exciting use of colour.

Mrs Taylor

Well first I got the idea from Mrs Taylor who said, "if you have a scanner at home you can scan the picture, and if you have a paint program you can edit the picture add some colour to it".
I did not have a scanner at home or a printer. So I went to Paper Plus and they scanned it for me and sent it to my email address.
That night I went onto the computer and looked for a paint program and there it was. It was called 'Paint'
So I got started. It was hard some times when I was going to put  colour on it the whole thing went green it took a while to do but it was worth it. 

Ryan Bishop

Year 7