Art & Design Foundation Stage 1

As I have decided my Museum Project piece will be based on The Swimming Pool by Thomas Rathmell, today I have been researching other artists who have painted the subject. The obvious swimming pool painter is of course David Hockney, but many other artists revel in the challenge of painting the human body submerged in water - Samantha French and Scout Cuomo are a couple of my favourites, but today I have found other wonderful, inspirational art and artists working along this theme. Samantha French Samantha French "Rise Up" I have followed Samantha French on Instagram for a while - her work is stunning. She lives in New York with her partner, another painter I admire, Aaron Hauck and their very cute dog. Aaron Hauck Her artist statement says: "My current body of work is focused on swimmers underwater and above. Using vague yet consuming memories from my childhood summers spent immersed in the tepid lakes of northern Minnesota, I attempt to recreate the qu

Yesterday we went to Newport Museum to do some sketching. Again, we were keeping to the theme of World of Water and so focusing on items on display relating to this topic. Newport Museum On the second floor there were lots of beautiful fossils and casts of mussel beds and such, which I did a few quick sketches of (I know they're not great, but time was limited!) On the third floor there was an exhibition relating to the Newport Medieval Ship, which included some interesting pieces: But what I was really drawn to was a painting on the third floor by Thomas Rathmell called The Swimming Pool. I love the bustle and busy-ness of the piece - when I look at it I can instantly hear that cavernous echoey noise of the pool with kids shouting & squealing and splashing & feet kicking the water. Mainly it's the individual characters that fascinated me - how they have been captured in such simple, broad, loose, expressive str

On Tuesday, Kath set us a task of finding find one of our shell drawings that we liked and to use it as inspiration for a design for an item of clothing, a piece of furniture and a building. I didn't like any of my drawings enough so I did a few more! This time I dipped string in ink and draped it on paper, copying the lines of the shell. The third one was just sponged ink study of light and shade with chalk highlights - not so successful. I chose the first image and crocheted it as a motif. For the clothing, I will make about 20 to edge a shawl. For the piece of furniture I will create a large one out of rope, fill the hole with a seat pad cushion and attach it a to a wooden frame to create a seat and I'm clueless on the building one! Something will come to me... **Edited to add: inspiration has finally struck with regards to the building - my Mum has just shared a photo on facebook that I took of her standing under a living willow arch... Kath also suggested I