Mrs Button (Year 6 Teacher)

On Friday 23rd September, Year 6 visited and were mesmerised by the collection of art at the National Art Gallery.

The purpose of this trip was twofold, first it linked in with the girls being able to explore art works from different genres, which has been part of our Unit of Inquiry, How We Express Ourselves. We were fortunate to see a huge variety of art ranging from religious art to Renaissance, Impressionism and Cubism. We saw artworks by Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh and Monet. There was also the opportunity to see a Picasso in an exhibition that looked at how artists influence each other.

Secondly, the girls took part in a workshop in which we were able to view and think about the A Shipwreck in Stormy Seas painting by Claude Joseph Vernet in more depth. This is this year’s Take One Picture painting - an art competition for schools to enter; creating artworks inspired by the picture chosen by the gallery. Currently, the girls are working towards completing an entry for this competition.

The girls came away from the gallery tired, but excited that they had seen a lot of amazing art works that are truly inspiring and also thought provoking. Their horizons have been truly broadened.

Here are reflections from the girls:

Rosanna (Year 6): “I really liked seeing all the different types of art and comparing them to see how different they were.”

Hollie (Year 6): “It was fun doing actions to represent things in the painting that we studied in our workshop called The Stormy Sea, it helped us understand what was happening in the painting.”

Anesi (Year 6): “I loved that we got to see real Van Gogh paintings - they were much smaller than I was expecting. I thought they would have a rougher texture.”

Niamh (Year 6): “It was really inspiring seeing the art works in real life rather than just online.”