Art is a necessity in life. It can determine who we are and how we understand ourselves and our possible selves. We see dance, drama, music, and the fine arts as the foundation of cultural participation and personal development. The experience of art stimulates the imagination, and in turn, imagination stimulates creativity.
The British School of Ulaanbaatar recognises that an appreciation of the arts is an essential part of developing students into mature individuals. In art and performing arts classes, students explore creativity and try their hands at different artistic pursuits. Here are four artworks of primary school students with introductions by the artists themselves. Well done to every artist!
Mongolian Starry night, Year 2
Year 2 students were inspired by the night sky in the Mongolian countryside to create their versions of Starry Night by Van Gogh. To create these masterpieces, They used crayons with a watercolour wash to create an oil resist effect and practised their line drawing skills by copying traditional Mongolian patterns onto our Gers.
Vincent van Gogh self-portrait, Year 3
Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch painter, is generally considered the greatest after Rembrandt van Rijn, and one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists. The striking colour, emphatic brushwork, and contoured forms of his work powerfully influenced the current of Expressionism in modern art. Year 3 students studied Vincent Van Gogh in class and created their portraits in their art class.
The mural, Year 4
During term 2, Year 4 learnt about Pop Art and influential artists of that time. They looked at the artwork of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Keith Haring. They explored different drawing styles and even appropriated artworks. The murals in the corridor are inspired by Kieth Haring's graffiti artwork. He wanted to inspire love and fun and happiness into the subways of New York, likewise, we hope we have inspired the same feelings in the corridor by using bright colours, bold outlines and action lines.
Picasso Cubist Portraits, Year 5
Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish popular painter, sculptor, printmaker, and theatre designer. He was experimental in his approach to art, often painting a common object or person from lots of different angles in one picture. This is called cubism. The art project is inspired by Picasso's Cubist paintings and was painted by year 5 students of the British School of Ulaanbaatar.