On Wednesday our Year 5 and 6 students travelled to Melbourne to the National Gallery of Victoria to see the Edgar Degas exhibition.
Our education guide was Alice who was awesome at explaining the development of Degas’ style and talking about life in Paris in the 1800s. Our Year 5 and 6 students were forthcoming in asking super questions and making some astute observations that impressed Alice. The Degas show is immense and this collection is drawn from over 67 locations around the world and includes sketches, paintings, pastel drawings, and sculptures. Degas had failing eyesight in his later years, so he did less painting and more sculpture, particularly of horses. One of the favourite pieces was a bronze and fabric sculpture of the 14 year old ballerina and the large blue painting of Degas’ cousins.
We ate our lunch, that included a great triple chocolate cookie, in the great hall beneath the coloured glass ceiling. In our afternoon workshop Levi and Jaydon’s work were a highlight showing a great understanding of using tone to create depth in their figures. Adam impressed us with his creative streak showing that Ladeane was not the only creative in the Lindsay family. We left with a clutch of drawings under our arm and a cool Degas tote bag for each student.
The day was fully sponsored by the National Gallery of Victoria, including our travel, lunch and workshop materials. This funding had been generously made to the national Gallery from Mrs Krystyna Campbell-Pretty and family provides support to schools/students to visit the NGV, specifically for rural students who often do not have the opportunity to visit city galleries. Have a chat to your child about the day and what they learnt and took away with on the day.
Thanks to the Year 5 and 6 students for their great company.
Adam, Kit and Inga
What was your favourite part of the day and why?
I really liked going to the National Gallery of Victoria because I learnt about Degas and his family. I also learnt that when he paints a picture, he uses a lot of feeling in his picture. He tries, and he does, paint or sculpt what the person or surrounding in the picture is feeling and you feel that when you look at his picture or other piece of artwork, you feel that you are in the picture with the other creations he has done. So in other words, I really liked going to the art gallery because I learnt a lot of how Degas painted or sculpts and most importantly, who degas actually is in real life. Degas is nice and very warm-hearted.