Venice Carnevale Masks

Venice is one of my all-time favourite cities (except during the peak tourist season and the flood season, when it's not so much fun!) Narrow cobblestone calles (lanes), canals and gondolas, magnificent architecture and art galleries - it really does have a magic only to be found in Venice!

The Venice Carnevale is held yearly before Lent, and is renowned around the word for it's elaborate costumes and masks. Go here to find out more about the history of Carnevale, and the traditional masks of Venice.

We've created our own Carnevale masks using a collage of coloured paper, feathers, curling ribbon and sequins, layering and decorating to make them as elaborate as we can. Mounted on our own photos, we can imagine we are there, experiencing the fun and romance of Carnevale!

Earth Day Inspired by Waterfalls in Plitvice, Croatia

April 22 is Earth Day!

We looked at some of the waterfall photos I took on a recent trip to Plitvice National Park in Croatia, noticing how the water is shaped by the rocks, constantly changing direction and gaining energy as it tumbles from the top to the bottom of the cascade.

Our backgrounds, inspired by the dynamic waterfalls, are created with watercolour resist, and we've finished with our interpretations of the diverse fauna of Plitvice, in soft pastel.

Ben

Last Night In The Garden .....

Last night in the garden... I saw some magical creatures!

As art students, we like to draw inspiration from a variety of sources - including cultural celebrations from around the world such as Chinese New Year, Earth Day and Japanese Children's Day, Christmas and Easter!

While we appreciate the special meaning of Easter, we are also enjoying the fun of the Easter Bunny!

Even our older artists are enjoying the fun of this very cute rabbit picture... and some have even morphed theirs into other creatures. We have foxes, birds, chickens, a ferret and even a unicorn!

We started with a guided drawing, as always looking for basic shapes to help us.
Using a simple egg shape for the head and tear-drop for the body, our rabbits have come alive with the magic of blended oil pastel, metal tooling and collage!

Fabulous Foil Reliefs

We used paper twine and cardboard to create semi-abstract relief collages before covering them with foil and then painting them with black tempera.

When the paint is dry we gently sponge the surface until our raised relief shines silver again. Finally we mounted them on brightly painted and patterned paper, a beautiful contrast!

Georgia

Bobble-Heads

Our clay Bobble-Heads are finished!

Painted with bright acrylic, each one has it's own 'personality'!

Monday Bobble-Heads

Op Art

Op Art (or Optical Art) uses line, contrast and often very precise mathematical composition to 'trick' the eye so that the viewer perceives different visual effects such as movement, warping, swelling or even hidden images.

We've had some fun this week, creating a 3D optical illusion using nothing but a black pen and very carefully drawn lines. Each one is completely different... some have achieved a clearly defined 3D effect, while others intriguingly look as though they are emerging from flowing water. Even our 'happy accidents' look quite amazing! Our artists have done an great job with this challenging project, which required a lot of care and patience! 

Emma