Shaping up
It’s International Sculpture Day on Sunday (26 April 2026), giving our young artists the perfect opportunity to continue their own sculptural adventures by exploring the exciting world of 3D art. So, this week in The Art Room, rather than copy from real life, we explored abstract sculpture – where art doesn’t have to represent anything at all – and focused instead on shape, balance and imagination to make wonderfully colourful paper constructions.
We began our session by learning about the important British artist Anthony Caro who’s big, metal abstract sculptures of the 1960s helped to change the idea of what sculpture could be. Turning his back on traditional statues of people or animals, displayed on a pedestal, Caro experimented with shapes, lines and space to create intriguing three-dimensional forms. Preferring to place his sculptures directly on the ground to provoke a different viewing experience, he championed the idea that art can be about ideas, imagination and experimentation.
Taking inspiration from Caro’s abstract sculptures, the children became sculptors and problem solvers for the afternoon and, armed with colourful paper sheets rather than steel beams and metal plates, they experimented with how different shapes could connect, overlap and stand in space on a black cardboard surface.
As well as learning and practising lots of new paper construction techniques such as cutting, folding and rolling to produce eye-catching forms and decorative features that could be viewed at every angle, the children had to think like artists to tackle the creative challenges of scale, balance, fixing and assembly. With total freedom to explore and no pressure to create something recognisable everyone immersed themselves in the process of playful discovery.
The children did a great job of working in 3D and we were thrilled with the collection of vibrant and innovative paper sculptures that were proudly displayed at the end of the day – a perfect celebration of creativity, curiosity and the joy of making something entirely unique.
