Hero photograph
 

Art Focus Term One

Rachel Foster —

Kia ora,

We have had a busy and creative first few weeks of Term One in the Art Department.

The Year 7 and 8 Students have been working on koru designs and looking at the artwork by New Zealand Maori Artist Reuben Paterson who uses glitter and Maori motifs in his work. The students have begun by moulding koru shapes out of clay to look at proportion and the way the koru shape can be used to create patterns and designs. They are also completing work using paint and glitter for their own designs. 

The Year 9 and 10 Students have been very busy sketching their designs and doing mockups for their murals. These murals when finished will be displayed in the school and hopefully like some of our students last year, they will be able to have their murals displayed in the Palmerston Community. The local Waihemo Pharmacy currently has two of our students' murals on display. We hope to approach other businesses in the local area who would be keen to have some lovely art to brighten up their walls. Please contact rfoster@eohs.school.nz if you know of a local business that would like a mural attached to their wall. The murals are 1200 by 600 mm and made of tanalised plywood.

Casey Bussell sketch for Mural Design

The Year 11 Students have been working on developing their skills in observational drawing, using a range of media including Indian ink, charcoal, pencil, pen and soft pastel. They have also been taking photos of their still life objects so they can then can paint from the photographs and use a multimedia approach with both photography and paint, They will look at Still life, Landscape and Portraiture over the year, developing their skills in these different genre so they can select an area they feel most comfortable with before beginning Level Two.

Henry Bucks photograph of his Still Life Objects.

Tremorgan Ottley, Still Life in watercolour and pencil

Juliet Clare, Still Life Study in Indian Ink

The Year 12 and 13 Students have been working on the written component of their internal assessments. Once this is completed they will begin to start sketching from their own photographs. The senior students all look at artists' models they have personally selected that work in the genre they are interested in. They write about the specific artist's work in terms of methods used by the artist model including pictorial devices employed, for example the artist's use of scale, viewpoint and use of colour and tone. This helps the students to then analyse their own artwork and identify the methods and techniques they are selecting for their own work .