Wellington: a city of art and space

 I know this post has quite  a lot of images but we found these structures and windows to then too fascinating not to want to share!

 What a cool window. Each time you look through it you see something you hadn't noticed before!

 just the right sort of shelf for a rest!

 More great spaces...

 and more city scapes!

 Somewhere in the sky see something round...

 Not sure what this was, but it was great to climb on!!

 Somewhere else to look.

 Looking back to the waterfront

 see something round again..

 In the picture is a boy, above his head  see something round!

 art is great when it also provides interaction for you!

 stepping out to catch some air

 Just contemplating the day!

how to draw history

 "How are cartoons used to express opinions, issues and ideas?

How do cartoons analyse different historical interpretations?"

We started in the migration museum examining cartoons there and noting their commentary on history.

Our guide,Toby, was very enthusiastic about his theme.

 Learners will explore issues that have affected South Australians from  colonisation to the present

 What is a cartoon:A simple drawing showing the features of its subjects in an exaggerated way, especially in a newspaper or magazine.

 learn how cartoons can be used as historical sources

learn how to communicate personal perspectives about an issue  via cartoons.



 We started our workshop with very gentle warm-up exercises:"draw a quick sketch of a mouse. Now add some cheese" No surprises that most cheese drawn was the holey variety and triangular in shape!!

 participate in a 60 minute  cartooning workshop run by cartoonist and illustrator, Simon Kneebone.

 I snapped a few pictures of works in progress.

Just another brick in the wall

On Thursday we went to the Art of the Brick exhibition.There were some amazing sculptures. Youngest son was a little disappointed at first as he saw it initially as more about art than Lego and he was hoping to score ideas for future projects. However once he started looking without expectations , like his brother, he found it incredible.

A bit of background about the artist: Nathan Sawaya was the sort of kid who by the sound of it, was always thinking up things to do. He wrote stories, drew cartoons,  performed magic tricks and also... played with LEGO.

Nathan qualified as  a corporate lawyer but found when he wanted to relax or just have fun he got more out of scrambling about on the floor with Lego.

I guess his creative spirit was bigger than his desire to work at law but he refound Lego as a medium for sculpture.

According to journalist Scott Jones, “Sawaya is a surrealist
 mash-up of forms and artists. Imagine Frank Lloyd Wright crossed with Ray Harryhausen, or Auguste Rodin crossed with Shigeru Miyamoto, and you start to get a sense of where Sawaya is coming from.”

  A life-size human form sculpture typically takes 2-3 weeks depending on complexity. Nathan makes plans of his work with graph paper before he begins.

 He says Lego appeals to him because it is a clean medium to work with.He also like how the sharp lines and corners of a model blur into pleasing curves when one stands back to view it.

And a brief bio about Lego: The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the two Danish words "leg godt", meaning "play well".It was  founded way back in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen.and a grandson of the founder still owns the company.(now that's one family business that worked well!!)

Apparently the founder was a  pretty creative guy and as a carpenter  made many different toys. His most popular was blocks made of wood. These developed into the plastic blocks of today.














The bricks, originally manufactured from cellolose acetate were a development of traditional stackable wooden blocks that locked together by means of several round studs on top and a hollow rectangular bottom. The blocks snapped together, but not so tightly that they required extraordinary effort to be separated.

Annual production of Lego bricks averages approximately 36 billion per year, or about 1140 elements per second. If all the Lego bricks ever produced were to be divided equally among a world population of six billion, each person would have 62 Lego bricks!

Artist Study: Marc Chagall: Journey on the Clouds

We are starting a study of the artist Marc Chagall.Marc Chagall was born in Vitebsk, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in Belarus] in 1887 - the oldest of nine children. His father worked in a herring factory and his mother sold spices and herring out of a small shop in their home. As a child he studied drawing and painting and in 1910 he went to Paris and became an artist. Chagall often painted dreamlike scenes and many of the pictures he painted include memories from his childhood. In addition to paintings, Marc created stage sets, stained glass, murals and costumes, as well as illustrations for children's' books.

We read this book which is based on the artists life and the boys are attempting a surrealist project of their own.

Populus and things popular!

"people"

Just a nice connection today in our learning, where two subject areas blended nicely together! Still working on our greek and latin root cards. Yesterday this was the new one and today using our calender of modern art(taking a different artist each month), we started a mini study on Andy Warhol

 We began by looking at some images I had downloaded from the internet plus of course those on our calender. Next we read Uncle Andy. This is a terrific book, highly recommend it, Its funny and warm and better still its written by a family member.(namely Warhol's nephew!)We were very lucky to find it at our library.

 L(10) said he would just love a front yard like this: its just so cool mum, why can't our yard look like this.

The boys have started a project of their own warhol, style.