Art Week: Burnley primary school students get creative

The budding Van Goghs and Modiglianis from Reedley Primary School took to Art Week, which started on Monday, October 15th, like ducks to water, with everyone from reception to Year 6 tapping into their inner painter, sculptor, or photographer.

In reception, children studied the work of Andy Goldsworthy, using sticks, stones, and leaves to create patterns and circles, developing their art by repeating their patterns and shapes to create whole new pieces. They also made paint brushes out of natural materials, using grass or leaves as bristles and celloptaping them together to make their own brushes.

Year 1 focused on the photography of Yousuf Karsh CC and Ansel Adams, Year 2 looked at the landscapes of John Constable, Year 3 tried their hand at aboriginal art having studied Gabrielle Possum, L.S. Lowry was Year 4's artist of choice, Andy Warhol's Pop Art was on the cards for Year 5, and finally Clarice Cliff's clay and ceramics were studied by Year 6.

All groups spent time looking at the artists' lives and their work before going on to produce their own work in the style of their artist before inviting parents to come into class and take part in creating some more art with them, with one of the school's governors coming in to see the children as well.

"I like doing the art like Andy; I like using sticks, stones, and leaves to make circles," said four-year-old Adam Baig from the Ladybird class in reception. "I loved having mummy in school to help me."

The school's arty plan going forward is for each year group to choose another artist in the in the spring and summer terms with no year group doing the same artist so that the children get to experience and take part in a wide variety of art.