Our Blog

Are you looking to further your artistic knowledge or become a better art teacher? Our blog posts are well researched and based on facts for students, teachers, parents or anyone looking to further their artistic knowledge. Put on the kettle and enjoy the reading...

Dinosaurs, Art and Critical Thinking

How can dinosaurs and art lessons help develop critical thinking skills!?

Creating artworks of pre-history

How can we illustrate what we have learnt about our world before there were written records, before we humans even existed? Depicting dinosaurs is one example. Artists create impressions of...

Continue Reading...
Creating Artworks of Cats

Drawing a cat is one of the first animals I do with kids. We start our drawing journey with circles and lines. These become faces of family. Then we move on to animals they know like cats, dogs and perhaps rabbits.

Many households have a pet cat. They are an animal that can live inside, sit on...

Continue Reading...
Art and Happy Hormones

When our children feel sad, are hurt, maybe unwell or injured we want to help them feel happier. Art as therapy is a well-known strategy that helps release the happy hormones in our bodies. There are four of these that health practitioners refer to when considering why some experiences trigger...

Continue Reading...
Drawing on the Devotion of Dogs

It’s said that a dog is man’s best friend - ‘man’ referring, of course, to all of us - mankind.  From an early age we draw those we love most, those closest to us - our pets and people. Circles, lines and squiggles become more recognisable as drawings are enhanced...

Continue Reading...
What's with the Weather?

Floods. Droughts. And something called La Niña or is it El Niño? La Niña means Little Girl and El Niño, Little Boy (in Spanish). A couple of mischievous kids playing with our weather!

Just like pranksters, we don’t always know what they are getting up to but we...

Continue Reading...
Patterns for Learning

As parents and educators, we help children develop skills and understandings through teaching about patterns. Patterns are repeated designs which may be manufactured or appear in nature. Observing patterns can help develop the ability to predict and hypothesise. Creating patterns improves our...

Continue Reading...
Colour in Art

As children start to pick up pencils, crayons and paint brushes they delight in changing colours. Becoming more proficient with their artworks, increasing awareness of what colour is and how to manipulate it to suit their purposes and feelings is something we can help them with.

One of the first...

Continue Reading...
Slow Processes

It’s a risky thing, as an emerging artist, to choose to create artworks that are slow to make and/or evolve. In a way, it feels like a deliberate act of defiance against the fast-paced risk-reward systems that contemporary society seems to prize. The artist is making a statement about the...

Continue Reading...
Connect to a Sketchbook

The heading of this blog is a play on a phrase found on the website www.sketchbookproject.com The project is run by not-for-profit organisation the Brooklyn Art Library in New York. The idea behind the Sketchbook Project came about in 2006 and the library has been operating as a storytelling...

Continue Reading...
Growing with Change

Change is a natural part of life. However, children are experiencing a greater than usual number of these at the moment due to the CoVid-19 pandemic: restrictions in numbers and venues for birthday parties, limitations on seeing extended family, people wearing masks, lockdowns,...

Continue Reading...
Culinary Artists: Fun with Food

Culinary Art is food art - preparing and presenting it in creative ways. Many of us enjoy watching MasterChef and other food-related programs on TV, or searching for video clips to learn more about presenting food. Could fun with food presentation, using art, encourage a better understanding and...

Continue Reading...
Fibre, Fabric, Fashion: The Making of Clothes

The creation of clothes to protect us from the effects of changing weather conditions, harsh elements in the environment and potential injury was born out of necessity but, even from the very earliest records, what was worn reflected gender, body type, age and location. 

Understanding the...

Continue Reading...
The Art of Travel and the Design of Transport

Let's talk about different forms of transport and how to kids can draw them!

From the dawn of time people have travelled from one place to another. We may move in centimetres, inches, yards, metres, miles, kilometres or, digitally, in pixels on a screen. Through developments in technology, modes...

Continue Reading...
Our Connection with Places

During the CoVid-19 pandemic, our homes did at times become our world. Whether by choice or, more likely, restrictions we became more acutely aware of how our place looks and feels, and the facilities it offers us when we can barely go anywhere else. This connection with Place may...

Continue Reading...
Living Sculptures - Playing with Plants

Viewing some of the amazing and beautiful gardens in Japan during the Tokyo Olympics brought to mind the role art and design can play in the way we manipulate and interact with plants. I thought of Bonsai and discovered Niwaki. I wondered about how clipping and shaping plants into artistic...

Continue Reading...
Drawing on Farm Life

My childhood was spent in country towns with family and friends living on farms: dairy, potato, wheat, sheep… As a teenager I accompanied my father as he travelled outback Australia in a 4WD visiting the remote cattle stations. Country life, particularly farm life, involves a lot of...

Continue Reading...
Art Activities in Autumn

In Australia, Autumn is from March to May. This cooler season between Summer and Winter is referred to as Fall in America and, being in the Northern Hemisphere, occurs from September to November.

Wherever you are, this is a colourful time when the leaves on the deciduous trees turn from green to...

Continue Reading...
What is it about water?

Water! We need it. We use it. We play with it.

We want to live by the sea and holiday by the river. We build bridges to go over it and boats to go on it. We create dams and weirs to collect it. We need it for drinking and cooking, washing and cleaning. Architects, engineers, designers and...

Continue Reading...
How do we know what fairies look like?

The tooth fairy has been busy recently in the homes of many 6 year olds - one, I know well! Made me think about fairies and how we know what they look like - through artwork, of course, in many classical stories.

Fairies in the garden. The tooth fairy. Tinker bell. Fairy godmother. Fairies can be...

Continue Reading...
Starting School

‘Art’ you ready…!?

Art can play such an important role in education but let's start at the beginning!

Five and in Foundation 

In Australia, children start school at about the age of 5: maybe not quite, or already 5. This first year of school is nationally...

Continue Reading...
Stories of Santa

So this is Christmas and what do we know…
Who was Saint Nick and why Santa in snow?

So many stories, songs, images. Even if you’ve heard these stories before, I like to revisit them at this time of the year and perhaps pick up a new little insight.

From the secret gift-giver in...

Continue Reading...
Where did the Christmas Tree come from?

Why do we bring a tree inside our house at Christmas time and hang things on it…? Do you use a real fir or spruce tree or a fake one?! Some Christmas trees used in stores, and in homes, are huge! Then there are all the choices for decorations - merchandising gone mad. I start to think...

Continue Reading...
‘Fauna’, ‘Animal’ or ‘Mammal’ Emblems of Australia?

Floral, fauna, bird, mammal, fish, fossil… The states and territories of Australia have each selected emblems in these various categories. Why did they do this? Why were the symbols they selected, chosen? And what’s the difference between the terms fauna, animal, and mammal?

...

Continue Reading...
The Art and Science of Seasons

Capturing ‘on canvas’ the changes around us as our world warms and cools can help us understand and appreciate the science behind the seasons. Looking around, what elements can we add to an artwork that represent what’s happening in nature because of the changes in weather...

Continue Reading...
1 2