Last term, the Year 4 boys immensely enjoyed investigating printmaking, an artistic process that involves transferring images from a matrix onto another surface, such as paper or textile. Traditional printmaking techniques include woodcut, etching, engraving, and lithography, while modern artists have expanded available techniques to include screen-printing. The boys began this topic by printing cityscape silhouettes that were created through a variety of polystyrene etchings that were coated in ink. Once they had familiarised themselves with the printmaking process, we moved onto learning about an iconic Victorian artist from the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris. Interestingly, Morris favoured a traditional, hands-on approach to creating his interior designs (which included wallpapers, textiles, carpets, embroideries, tapestries, tiles and book designs), a method not very popular after the Industrial Revolution. The boys were impressed with the intricacy involved in creating Morris’s wallpapers, which are still manufactured today utilising the original woodcuts and bespoke paint colour recipes, 125 years after his death. The boys used Morris’s inspiration of flora and fauna in their own etchings to create their bespoke prints. With each layer of ink, the boys create more depth and detail in their work.  

Mrs Hryschuk, Head of Art