Birds

SEPTEMBER OCTOBER & NOVEMBER

10 week block

School: Warrenmount

Class: 6th Class

Teacher : Ms O’ Reilly

Early in September we went to The Sculpture in Context exhibition at the Botanical Gardens . We were treated to a beautiful day of sunshine and a feast for the eyes and mind with all the brilliant art works dotted throughout the gardens.

We noticed all the different materials being used to create the different art works, we talked about how the artist might have made the work . some of the work on show was made from found natural objects like sticks, stones, and straw, we also discussed what tools the artist may have used to carve the different types of stone or how the artist might cast in bronze.

We noticed that many of the artworks on show were based on nature and birds. Back at the classroom we began our intensive study of birds.

We began by drawing in pencil.

We then worked on black card using oil pastels. I encouraged the girls to mix their pastels and use colour to work on a bird that best represented themselves rather than a bird you may see in an Irish garden. I brought in some photographs from the exhibition along with some pencil line drawings of birds.

The girls worked using white oil pastels first and then added colour.

Some of the girls also experimented with water colour.

We talked about the birds we see on an everyday basis. The birds we may see on our way to school . Birds lining up on electricity lines and silhouettes of birds in the trees.

I asked the girls to keep an eye out for these birds on their way to school. To look carefully at their surroundings and see if they noticed new things. The following week one of the girls arrived in and told me that on her way to school she had stopped to take some photographs on her phone of the silhouettes of birds in a tree!!!!

We made some quick sketches of silhouettes of birds on branches.

Using clay , wire and mod roc the girls then made small birds which they’d use in their own sculptural piece. They also made some which would be used in a collaborative piece.

I asked the girls to bring in some branches and sticks that they would use to make their own sculptural piece based on the silhouette of birds.

The girls used wools in different ways to transform their branches.

Some chose brightly coloured wools while others stuck to the cool and icy winter colours.

We looked at how the lines of the wool wrapped their way around the branches. the girls focused on the shape and direction of the lines to make more drawings.

For the final workshop parents were invited in to work alongside the girls