Celebrating Art in Lower School
9th June 25
“We all worked hard and transformed it into something you’d never really have imagined that we could do.” Hugo, Year 4
Magical things often happen in the Lower School Hall, and this half term started off strongly with an exhibition of artwork and ceramics by students from Years 2 to 6.
Walking into the space you were immediately surrounded by colourful creativity. Artist in Residence Kat Fotopoulos explained the concept of the show: “It’s all about growth and things that grow, including ourselves. Each year group has looked at the same idea from a different perspective and the results are fabulous, it feels like a proper art gallery in here. By putting the work up like this, we put it on a big pedestal and give it the space it needs. We emphasise the importance of Art and celebrate it.”
When students got to show their families around the exhibit, their pride was plain to see:
By the door was a wonderful wall of quotes from students from across Lower School who had contributed their thoughts on why art is important. We’ve included some of their quotes throughout the article.
“It’s good to let your feelings out into art instead of keeping it in your head!” Ivy
Year 2 students looked at personal growth, creating fantastical trees with large leaves representing their own skills. With bigger leaves for the skills they felt they are good at, and smaller leaves for things they can do but want to get better at.
Year 3 students produced some gorgeous, colourful sketchbooks which inspired some fabulous felt pieces. They began by watching videos of flowers blooming. They then looked at the language around flowers and created a collage using these words and their responses to the videos.
They then explored their own ideas through their sketchbooks, asking questions, including responses and experimenting. The tactile floral felt squares were the result.
“Art can make you feel courageous and be in a good mood.” Adam
Year 4 took on printing and the results were worthy of any wall. The outcomes on display were beautiful, but the children learnt so much more than just artistic techniques as Kat explains: “Take a look at printing, it’s really difficult, you have to make a lot of mistakes. I taught them how to print and then let them learn by themselves. When they made a mistake, they went away and tried again. Making a mistake was part of the process, they knew it would happen and the felt comfortable with that. Sometimes it was those mistakes which turned out to be the most beautiful.”
Year 5 produced some sculptural takes on the growth theme. With Picasso and cubism as inspiration, they looked at actual foliage (supplied by our lovely school gardener, Andy) and the shapes which made up the plants. After drawing these as still life on paper, they then cut out the shapes and made them into sculptures. Kat said: “It was a very playful way of creating 3D sculptures from 2D versions of a 3D shape! The results are fabulous.”
“Art brings more colour to and excitement to all people.” Neve
Alongside the artworks produced in Kat’s classes – there were some fabulous ceramic creations provided by students across the Year groups who had attended the ceramics enrichment sessions on Friday afternoons run by Year 4 teacher Sophie Cooper. Inspired by seeds, the sculptural objects adorned the central table and helped to showcase the breadth of artistic endeavours across the school.
“Art makes you feel something.” Kaia
