Roll up!  Roll up!  In Visual Arts, Year 1 have recently applied their painting skills to adding life and colour into their vibrant Circus Performer artworks.

To begin this mixed media unit, we looked at the artworks of the French artists who frequented the popular circuses of Paris in the late 1800s – Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat and Degas – as well as the later circus paintings of Leger and drawings of American artist, Calder.  After brainstorming all the human circus performers we could think of, many students chose to depict a clown or ringmaster, while others created lion-tamers, motorcycle stunt performers, trapeze artists, stilt-walkers, acrobats and more.

Students modelled little hands and feet and faces, that were later painted with a spectrum of skin colours.  Children paid special attention to the three-dimensional form of the body, even considering features such as opposing thumbs.  We all got really gooey mixing shredded paper with glue to make a papiér mâché torso, legs and arms. 

These jolly little characters represent a great leap of perception for children at this age, when most are still representing people as stick figures.  Let’s be honest - many adults never got past this stage!  It’s a delight to see students developing confidence in handling a range of materials, working over an extended period to finished a complex piece of art.  Each child has a story to tell behind the creative decision-making processes that occurred along the way.

Year 1 students Sohan and E-V summed it up well with their comments: “What I like about Art is it’s fun and creative”; “What I like about Art is that it is beautiful when you have finished your painting.”

Mrs Ann McDermott 
Junior School Specialist Teacher (Visual Arts)