Year 1 began their new computing unit, ‘We are digital artists’ today. Throughout this unit, the children will explore and recreate the work of many famous artists, including Kandinsky, Picasso and Matisse, digitally.

Their first challenge was to recreate colour blocks in the style of American artist Mark Rothko. The children enjoyed exploring and comparing examples of his original work; engaging in high-quality discussions around his colour choices and the feelings evoked by his paintings.

Using the ‘Brushes Redux’ app, pupils then made informed choices about which brush style and width would best suit their desired outcome. The children had great fun choosing complimenting colours from the colour wheel and soon had aching muscles from all of those sweeping, horizontal brush strokes that they had to make.

The final challenge before saving the very impressive completed pieces to the device, was to include contrasting layers of colour- very typical of Mr Rothko himself.

Both Mrs Turner and the children were super proud of the finished pieces and are excited to see what masterpieces are created next week when Year 1 recreate Kandinsky’s squares with concentric circles.