Welcome to Creative Ardagh's Elements of Art Course

Creative Ardagh are delighted to announce this exciting art course.
This site is designed to showcase the art produced by participants and to share extra resources to enhance the course. For primary school teachers who may want to follow the course with your class we have provided curriculum linked aims and objectives (see the For Teachers tab above). To get started click on the Line page above. If you do take part from a distance please let us know how you get on and feel free to email us pictures for display here: creativeardagh@gmail.com.

The pictures (left and below) show that the elements of art are all around us, but sometimes we need to stop and look closely to notice them. In the photo on the left we can see line in various forms, straight thick lines dividing the boards, thin meandering lines in the pattern of the wood, short dashed lines in the grass. These lines add pattern and texture to the picture. There is shape in the shadow of the leaves and the angle of the lines going away from us help define the picture space. There is not a lot of colour in either picture here, but we can pick out the subtleties of tone that let our eyes process the 3d forms in the images, especially in the roundness of the unusual mushrooms spotted in our woods. Here you can also see line in the twigs and pattern and texture in the foliage. As you can see all the art elements work together to create the picture but highlighting them individually can give a better appreciation of the whole work. That is what we aim to do with this course, while also integrating art with other aspects of life, our history and heritage, art in various cultures, science and nature and maybe even some maths. The emphasis will be on the process of creating, rather than the finished products so the course can help everyone build their art skills whatever their age or level of experience. 

Keep checking back here as content will be added under the tabs each week and don't forget to check our main website creativeardagh.blogspot.ie and www.facebook.com/creativeardagh to see what else we offer groups and schools and for updates on all that is happening in Ardagh Heritage and Creativty Centre. Enjoy!

Week 6 and 7 photos

With everything else that has been going on in Creative Ardagh, including preparations for our Wonderful Woodland Christmas event, we've forgotten to share photos from our classes and recent submissions, sorry about that! Here are a few from weeks 6 and 7. Thanks as always to those of you who sent us in pictures and ideas. If you have something you would like to share with us please let us know at creativeardagh@gmail.com

Tonal collage by James

A great example of Tones sent in by James

Tonal painting by James

Working on tonal collage in Rang a 3, Gaelscoil Longfort

Working on tonal collage in Rang a 3, Gaelscoil Longfort

Working on tonal collage in Rang a 3, Gaelscoil Longfort

Finished collages on display in Gaelscoil Longfort

Week 5 submissions and photos from Creative Ardagh

Sent in by James

We were busy last week with our Halloween event so we're a bit slow at sharing these, sorry James.
Several people have told us they are following along, but are a bit behind, so keep looking here for more submissions and to see what we get up to in Ardagh each week too.

Sent in by James

In our class we had a bit of a challenge changing the lighting conditions as there are no curtains on the large windows, so we had to set up a tent-like area for the objects. We then experimented with and without the camera flash and with different lights on. It's amazing to see how much an object's appearance can change depending on the light. Even though the objects were all white they appear in shades of grey and even blue, pink or yellow at times. Here are a few photos from our class. Lots more can be seen here.

Week 4 photos

We had fun and produced loads of prints last week when we experimented with mono-printing. As usual we had a lovely mix from toddlers to adults participating. That was our last week focusing on line, but please continue to send us in anything you do, line-based or not at any stage in the future. We love to see others adding to and changing the ideas for their own artwork. James sent us some string art and wood whittling samples (both line projects) this week, along with some leaf prints. His pictures and some from the Ardagh class are below, more as usual here.

Leaf prints sent in by James

String art and wood whittling sent in by James

Week 2 and Week 3 submissions

We're delighted to continue to receive lots of positive response to the course. Here's some of the pictures we were sent in this week for Week 2 - Lines in ancient art and Week 3 - Lines in modern art. More here.

Week 2 - Rang a trí, Gaelscoil Longfoirt

Week 2 - Rang a trí, Gaelscoil Longfoirt

Sent in by James - Starting off, Jackson Pollock style

Sent in by James - Painted lines

Bridget Riley inspired art by James

Keep sending them in to creativeardagh@gmail.com please.

Week 3 - Line in Modern Art

We had great fun today learning about line in the art of Jackson Pollock and Bridget Riley. We love the dynamics of all ages working together. Toddlers, adults and those in between enjoyed painting like Pollock and experimenting to get the paint runny enough, but not too runny. We also made curvy templates and tried some Bridget Riley inspired designs. More pictures here.

Week 2 - Line in Ancient Art

We had great fun with cave art and ancient Irish art last week. We experimented with charcoal, created stamps to use later and played around with texture on clay. Here are a few of the pictures. More can be found on here.