The first week of 4SH’s arts fortnight was inspired by contrasting the Roman god Venus (love/peace) with Mars (war). Gustav Holt’s orchestral suite ‘The Planets’ inspired our initial continuous line drawings as we interpreted these two movements with charcoal, pen and graphite. Colour to represent the emotions within the piece was then added. These contrasting emotions-both incredibly powerful-were then explored through dance and abstract painting.

Comparing the floating cloudlike forms of layered colour by Mark Rothko and the drippy, splashy, messy action painting of Jackson Pollock certainly made 4SH appreciate the differences in style. Throughout, an interpretation of an emotion was expected with brushstroke as well as colour choice.

After a session working in the style of Jackson Pollock to convey the contrasting emotions of love and war, each child was given an emotion that they needed to convey in his style. These were worn for their dance performance, choreographed brilliantly by Miss Allison.

Piecing together a picture of Saturnalia, introduced the contrast of slavery and freedom for week 2.  

With the feasting, came the ‘jugs’ and these inspired our own collaborative clay creations and mono-printing. I was so impressed with their coiled pots, ‘glued’ with slip on the cross-hatching. The facial features certainly brought the whimsical and smiles. Team work and real life Maths was definitely in operation during this session.

To encourage freedom in the drawing of these wonderful creations, mono-printing was introduced. The delight on faces as their drawing was revealed was very special.

Well done 4SH for a fantastic fortnight of immersive learning.