Artist Threads

Our content is mapped out across the school by following threads which are developed upon across the school and through the children's learning journeys.

Year 1    

Archimboldo

Archimboldo is famous for creating portraits using fruit and vegetables as the facial features. Children will describe the work of Archimboldo and begin to express their opinion on his work. They will then use the work of Archimboldo to inspire their own collages, organising images of fruit and vegetables to create a portrait.

Henri Mattise

In this unit, children will study the collage work of Henri Mattise. They will then learn about complementary colours and develop their cutting skills to create different shapes using brightly coloured paper. Children will then learn to arrange their shapes in an artistic way to create a collage inspired by Henri Mattise.

Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is famous for using natural materials to create 3D sculptures. During this unit, children will collect, sort and group natural materials, learning about colour, texture and shape. Using the materials found, children will experiment with joining them together in different ways to create sculptures.

Year 2

Andy Warhol

Children will understand the historical and cultural development of Pop Art and evaluate the work of Andy Warhol, a famous Pop Artist. Children will use printing techniques to create their own Andy Warhol inspired Pop Art.

Richard Symmonds

In this unit, children will learn different drawing techniques. They will experiment with drawing different lines and shapes, investigate tones by drawing light and dark lines and create images from observations. 

Year 3

Jackson Pollock

Famous for splash painting, children will evaluate and analyse the work of Jackson Pollock, expressing their opinions of his work and understanding that this may differ from the opinions of others. Children will learn to sketch a volcano and use the painting techniques used by Jackson Pollock to create a volcanic scene.

Clay Sculptures

During their history unit on Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, children will use clay to create amulets and Viking faces. They will develop confidence in manipulating clay, using a variety of techniques to add details and texture to their sculptures. Children will also investigate ways of joining clay, such as using scratch and slip techniques.

Year 4

Lowry

During this unit, children will evaluate and analyse the work of Lowry, expressing their opinion on his work and experimenting with different art techniques to replicate his work. Children will develop confidence drawing different lines and creating different tones. They will begin to learn about drawing in perspective and think carefully about the proportions in their work.

Henri Rousseau

Inspired by Henri Rousseau, children will create artwork to match their book ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. During this using, children will continue to develop their drawing skills and use oil pastels to add colour and texture to their work.

Year 5

Megan Coyle

Megan Coyle is famous for her collage work. Children will describe and evaluate the work of Megan Coyle and compare her work to collage artists previously studied. Using her work as inspiration, children will experiment with different collage techniques, such as tearing, overlapping and layering to create images and represent textures.

Van Gogh

During this unit, children will study the work of Van Gogh and develop impasto techniques where paid is laid on thickly to show the brushstrokes, adding texture. They will develop their sketching skills by recreating ‘Starry Night’ and use this to design and create their own ‘Starry Night’ inspired art piece.

Year 6

Esher

Esher is famous for creating artwork using tessellation. Children will describe, evaluate and analyse his work before using this to design and make their own art work. Children will create a stencil to tessellate and evaluate the success of their work at the end of the unit.

Picasso

During this unit, children will learn about the historical movement of Cubism. They will study the cubist portraits created by Picasso and use this to design and create their own cubist portraits. Children will consider the proportions used and develop their use of line, shape and tone in their work.