Art

At our school we take a contemporary/traditional approach to art and design education where we give pupils the knowledge, skills and confidence to express their artistic thoughts and ideas creatively and imaginatively. Key areas of drawing, painting, printing, collage and 3D are taught sequentially and robustly from Nursery to Year 2. However, since we do not have the curriculum time to deliver the full spectrum of art and design properly, we provide stimulating curriculum experiences in a range of other art skills throughout the curriculum at various times.

What Art looks like in our school.....

The whole school took part in a collaborative project with Primary Art skills with the theme of King Charles III and his love of nature. Parents and grandparents were invited in to contribute. We learnt lots of skills from wet felting, wool wrapping, sewing, printing all adding different texture to our finished display. 

The whole school worked on a collaborative wall hanging to celebrate our lovely costal town. The whole school from Nursery through to Year 2 took part. We invited our parents in to work alongside the children and the artist. 

William Mitchell Project

Year 2 children were involved in a Maryport Schools project about the artist William Mitchell. 2023 is the 200th anniversary of William Mitchell's birth. William Mitchell came over to Maryport from Donaghadee in Northern Ireland to paint the railway carriages on the Maryport to Carlisle railway. He stayed in Maryport and then concentrated on landscape and maritime paintings. The children worked with artist Celia Burbush to produce some paintings for an exhibition in St Mary's Church where William married his wife Hannah. The children were also interviewed for Border TV.

Percy Kelly exhibition

Year 2 went on the train to The Beacon in Whitehaven to visit the Percy Kelly exhibition. We learnt lots of different facts about Percy and saw lots of his work. We all chose our favourite piece of art and could explain why.

Autumn term Year 1 and 2 look at mark making in art. They looked at different marks artists used in their work. Year 1 then studied Charles McGee and his art and sculptures while Year 2 studied the Doodle Boy.

Each class created some jubilee themed artwork based on work by an artist. Nursery covered the queens head in spots like the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, Reception did splatter pictures based on Jackson Pollock, Year 1 did some graffiti art based on Banksy and Year 2 did some pop art based on Andy Warhol.

They also took part in a online drawing event by illustrator and author Steven Anthony who wrote and illustrated the Queen's hat series.

Maryport Lowry Art Project

While visiting his friend Mr G Bennett at the local Natwest Bank LS Lowry painted and drew several places in Maryport. A painting of the towns iconic Christ Church sold at Southerby's for £81,000.

Maryport infant and primary schools completed a collaborative Lowry art project with local artist John McNamee. This lead to displaying the art works produced by the children in the local shops and library in the town.

Self Portraits

Nursery have been using a mirror to look carefully and discuss their facial features. We talked about how we all have the same features but they are slightly different on us all. We then used paint to make our self portraits. We tried hard to create closed shapes to represent our features and add detail to our painting. We talked about the colours we would need for each part and sometimes had to mix the colours to get the right colour.