ART ON COLOURS OF OUR WORLD

The above art was done by my eldest son when he was 12. I've asked him to help me come up with a banner for the school, and this is what he has done. It was done in acrylic, and was not easy as the paint dries very fast. Although it was meant to be for our theme on occupation, it is also apt for Colours of the World, as our world consists of many diverse cultures and races, and we should love and respect each other. Only then will we achieve harmony and greater beauty for all.

Art has always been an integral part of our curriculum. That is why we have two experts in this field to teach, guide and lead our children. Creative arts such as music and movement, story-telling and drawing/painting/craft are all ways of self-expression, instilling discipline as well as encouraging the children to see out of the box (cliche though it may sound!) so that they do not excel only academically.

The following are some of the work that we have done in relation to Colours of the World.

LOLLIPOPS - the whirls of the lollipop depicts the world in motion. The lollipop carries the message of my world as a sweet, colourful and beautiful one. Children love the colours and the candy-sweetness of lollipops. (Fortunately, they know that too much lolli is no good for teeth!)

This 3D craft gives the children opportunity to scrunch the cellophane paper and glue them onto the art block. Great for fine motor skill, hand-eye coordination and developing patience and concentration.

Printing using okra or ladies fingers. Somehow the children have the patience to meticulously print each okra beautifully onto the art block.

Non-objective art - arts that is not representational. It eliminates the idea of depth and instead focus on composing a harmonious arrangement of grids, shapes and colours. Beautiful creation from the children. Most use their intuition to come up with the masterpieces as they were all given a free hand to compose their own piece.

The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Manus Pinkwater is a marvellous book about not conforming to standard norms and living up to our individuality. It tells the story of Mr Plumbean who dared to change his house according to his personality, despite objections from his neighbours. "My house is me and I am it. My house is where I like to be and it looks like all my dreams."

After telling them the story, I encouraged the Navy Beans to draw me their dream house. This is what they have!

Everyone's is different, although there were many castles from the girls. All wanted a lovely house, filled with warmth and love.

Rachel's house is a colourful, checked house.

Gavin's is a submarine!

Shannon's is a candy-sweet and every thing nice! Notice the little girl at the bottom right.

Another book that we discussed was Color Dance by Ann Jonas. This is a very good book that introduces colour-mixing as well as names of different shades of green, purple and orange. I want the children to learn names of colours beyond the common ones such as vermilion, chartreuse and magenta.

My next project is to let the children mix their own colours to form the above palette of blue, aquamarine, green, chartreuse, yellow, marigold, orange, vermilion, red, magenta, purple and violet.