Art In Year 4

This week we started our new ‘Extreme Earth’ topic by producing our own art pieces to resemble the “The Great Wave”.

For our art study for this term, we have been learning about the work of Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) who was a Japanese artist during the Edo period in Japan. Did you know that Hokusai would go on to changing his name nearly 30 times when producing new pieces of art which wasn’t uncommon in Japan during those times. His most famous work, ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ is the first wood block print in a series of 36 titled ‘Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji’. It shows a giant wave threatening boats near Kanagawa and was made using the ukiyo-e technique which usually show beautiful Japanese scenes and landscapes.

To make our own interpretation of ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’, Year 4 looked at a colour wheel to spot ‘warm’ and ‘cool’ colours and discussed how they made us feel. We then discussed why we felt Hokusai wanted to show the Great Wave in this way and how he could have been feeling at the time. We learnt how to mix colours to create a mood in our paintings through different shades of warm and cool colours. Using these shades, we created a contrast between the dark, threatening waves in the foreground, with the warm, peaceful colours in the background to show the unpredictability and power of the waves.

Although is it unlikely ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’ is a tsunami, the print has been used as a symbol of extreme weather events such as tsunamis and the extreme power of the ocean across the world. Japan is a place which experiences tsunamis and earthquakes often, and we will be studying the tragic tsunami of 2011 later on in the term.

What was your favourite part of our art lessons this week? What did you enjoy most?