This week, our Primary 4 Remote Learners were joined by artist Ruslan
Lyu.
After having spent a few lessons exploring different materials used by
artists throughout history (including turmeric, coffee, pencils and even
Zoom Paint), Mateo, Lucie and Zephyrus started working with black
marker pen! Without the ability to erase, our three artists-in-themaking began experimenting with the bold tool – creating pictures of
anything they could think of! Lucie reflected on how the use of a marker
meant having to think about how we could turn what felt like a mistake
to a meaning part of the artwork.
Mr Faez showed our students a video of a local artist, Ruslan, who uses
this exact tool in his own work. After being amazed by the time lapse
demonstrating the powerful image we can see on the right, Mr Faez
asked students, ‘I wonder what advice and feedback Ruslan would give
about our drawings,’ to which Zephyrus replied, ‘Yes, that would be
cool, but how?’ Before we knew it, Ruslan had indeed jumped into the
Zoom call and was in the online classroom with our students and Mr
Faez.
The students had an opportunity to share their work with Ruslan who
commented on their pieces before he gave them another task: to create their perception of happiness! Mateo and Zephyrus both commented on wanting to include light colours to represent the sunshine – something that makes them both feel happy. Lucie’s masterpiece instead took inspiration from people who brought her happiness – her family.
Toward the end of Ruslan’s guest speaker session with our P4
students, we were able to enjoy Ruslan showcase some more of his
art skills but this time live! Similar to Lucie’s thoughts earlier in the
session, Ruslan spoke about the power of the marker and how it
helped him realize that there is no such thing as a mistake in art!
If you are or know an artist who would be interested in further
supporting our students by being a guest speaker or holding a
workshop, please do get in touch! We’d love to hear from you.

Krisha Gandhi, Director of Studies and PYP Coordinator