I visited the year 6 students at Arrowtown School today to create some fabulous camouflage art! The theme of camouflage for our art was really appropriate considering the WWI centenary which starts this year.

During my visit we discussed how animals use camouflage in the wild (to hunt, or to hide). We also thought of how humans use camouflage... we came up with four ideas: for hunting, for the army (like the soldiers used during WWI), for fashion, and for ART!

Our inspiration for artworks came from three VERY different artists:

• Desiree Palmen is a Dutch artist who paints peoples clothes to help them blend into the city, which she then takes photos of.
• Andy Warhol liked the idea of how camouflage hides things, but when he created his camouflage prints he painted them in bright colours so that two opposite ideas of hiding and being easily seen were combined.
• Reuben Paterson is a kiwi artist who likes to incorporate glitter into his artworks of kowhaiwhai patterns.

The techniques we used today included:

• Using different media (paint, crayons, photography, and glitter)
• Mixing and blending colours to create our animal and camouflage prints and to disguise our hands
• Practicing our sketching skills by copying images of animal and camouflage prints onto sheets of paper.

The works these students created were AMAZING! I was so impressed by the high quality of the pieces of art - I can't wait to run another workshop!

What did you enjoy about the Art workshop?

What was something new you learned at the workshop?

How are you going to display your pieces of art in the classroom?

Who is your favourite artist?

Answer my questions and comment about your visit below!