7 December 2020
This week I will be teaching a drawing lesson on natural forms and I want to introduce students to a colourful alternative application of drawing through the ornamental technique of sgraffito, which has historical and contemporary applications in wall décor and ceramics.
27 April 2020
Grade 8s were tasked with using the graphic design programme Canva to create public health posters encouraging the public to make responsible personal choices in order to protect themselves and others during the current coronavirus pandemic.
13 April 2020
In a follow-up to our art historical mashups, we took up the task of composing engaging and dynamic digital collages recontextualising artworks of different times, places and cultures but with a greater focus on the visuals of Vietnamese and Korean cultures.
16 March 2020
We looked at the risks taken by Renaissance artists and designers and how their contributions sowed the seeds of modern Western art history. Students toured Florence to see the artefacts of progress that propelled the city’s artistic and architectural legacy, then created digital collages using Renaissance motifs and elements of important artworks made in later centuries.
17 January 2020
With the Year of the Pig drawing to a close and the Year of the Rat right around the corner, we studied Dong Ho woodcut paintings– traditional images from Vietnamese celebrations of the Lunar New Year.
7 January 2020
This term in Art ECA, we spent our afternoons designing and sewing cushions inspired by the colourful cut-outs of Henri Matisse. Working just under an hour each week, students spent the semester making Matisse-inspired collages and applying textile fundamentals to produce their cushions.
5 December 2019
In our most recent collaborative paintings, Grade 7s looked at the relationship between coloured dashes in a series of Paul Signac paintings: ‘Golfe Juan’ (1896), ‘Le Port au soleil couchant, Opus 236 (Saint-Tropez)’ (1892), and ‘Place des Lices’ (1893).
18 November 2019
In this update to last year’s Candy House project, Grade 6s created and solved their own design problems as they brought their visions for a house coated in confectionery to life. Students worked as architects, engineers, builders and decorators as they designed and constructed their pieces.
1 November 2019
For our unit on Community, Grade 8s learned about the illustrious history of the world’s first mass produced global luxury items— Chinese porcelain. Using the subtractive technique of sgraffito, they transcribed the designs of various Ming vases, then developed original Ming-style designs for a ceramic vase based on the communities to which they belong.
18 October 2019
Half-term is here again, and the art studio has been decked in black and bright orange to celebrate Halloween upon our return from the half-term break.
7 October 2019
For our Grade 8 Entry Point for Community, we made a trip to Hope School, a local school for students with hearing disabilities and downs syndrome, to make connections with other students in the community and together make quilled paper greeting cards in celebration of the upcoming Vietnamese Women’s Day.
27 September 2019
As they learned how Pop artists challenged the art world of the mid-20th century, Grade 8s studied Wayne Thiebaud’s paintings of mass culture objects and Roy Lichtenstein’s paintings mimicking commercial art and printing.
20 September 2019
Grade 7s learned fundamentals of the printmaking process as they worked to carve transcriptions of Northwest Coast totem animals into a printing plate. The big idea of communication had renewed importance with regards to technique as students were challenged to thoughtfully and skillfully transfer an image from matrix to paper.
30 August 2019
In a series of timed drawing exercises, my Grade 11s worked in charcoal to depict the contours, shapes, forms, and areas of light and dark in simple still life scenes made from a variety of objects, including large seashells, a pair of sandals, an iron and various bottles.
16 August 2019
Last June, my then-Grade 8s finished their last unit of the year, Responsibility, which we interpreted through applied design and an environmental lens. Students were tasked with designing and developing a board game centred on an environmental theme of their choice, such as environmental ethics, ecology and conservation.
7 June 2019
As we close out this school year, we’re looking back on what we’ve achieved in Secondary Art in a showcase of our finest examples of artistic study and creative exploration.
3 June 2019
My Grade 9s and 10s looked at one of the Dreamtime stories well-known among Australian aboriginal cultures where the immense Rainbow Serpent came up from the ground and created the ridges, mountains, and gorges of the earth.
28 May 2019
An extension of our Grade 6 unit on Risk exploring Fauvism, we backtracked to an important source of Fauvism’s wildly colourful aesthetic, using Post-Impressionist Vincent Van Gogh’s rhythmic brushwork and emotional use of colour to transcribe photos of various Vietnamese landscapes.
27 May 2019
For our Grade 6 unit on Risk, we looked at the risks a loosely allied group of French painters at the beginning of the 20th century took to separate colour from its descriptive, representational purpose and allow it to exist independently on the canvas.
29 April 2019
For our Grade 7 unit on Courage, we looked at the courage of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo to express herself through her self-portraits. Students then constructed digital collage self-portraits using a photo of themselves along with images sourced from the Internet.
