The Value of Participating in The Arts

There are numerous valuable reasons for studying Art. Judgement rather than rules prevail, and unlike other subjects, students learn that there can be more than one solution to a question. Art celebrates multiple perspectives and understands that there are many ways to see and interpret the world. At KingsWay School, the Art students enrich theirs and others’ lives through developing their gifts. They overcome setbacks through the fruit of the Spirit and praise God by reflecting their Creator in their pieces.

In Middle School, students are able to engage with many aspects of the arts. In visual arts, students participate in learning activities for 7 weeks as part of their rotational subjects. There are also other opportunities for students to enjoy art activities associated with their core subjects.

In the Year 7 art rotation, students are introduced to varying artist techniques. Beginning with colouring mixing, they also learn about shades and tints before moving into understanding the artist style. From here, each week students investigate a historical artist and recreate a famous piece using pastel, paint and pen. Some favourites include Khandinsky, Escher, Harring and Van Gogh. The focus is artistic understanding and we also look into how God has gifted us each with the ability to express his creation in individual ways.

Students then build on this understanding of uniqueness in Year 8, where they use ‘selfies’ to create self-portraits. Students can see the proportions of their faces and the placement of their features by tracing lines onto clear film. They are required to use some of the principles of art, such as the use of negative space to plan a meaningful background. This project gives students the opportunity to tell a visual story and express a view about their own personal environment as they surround their self-portrait with images of places, events, occasions and people that have meaning to them. We encourage the students to think about a place where they could go to feel at peace or spend time with God.

Pat Stier and Van Gogh have been the artist models for Year 10. This project has led them to improve the fundamental skills of observation drawing, painting, using oil pastels and magazine collage. Their final pieces demonstrate an attention to detail with great control.

Year 11 are making great progress with the theme of travellers on a journey. Translating a photograph into a lino print requires a number of skills, and they have produced some exceptional results.

Here are some of the Year 12 still life tonal observation drawings. Each student has chosen what objects to include with careful thought to shape and textures.

The Year 13s are investigating a number of themes ranging from space, racial intolerance and the Holy Trinity. KingsWay offers three specialisms: print, paint and design.

We are nearly halfway through the Creatives in Schools programme. It has been such a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn photography skills from Izak van der Merwe. He is a natural teacher and a successful and highly regarded professional in this field.

KingsWay succeeded in winning this grant over many other prestigious Art Departments in the country. For this reason, we have encouraged the students taking part to make the most of their time with Izak. Judging by the energised, collaborative atmosphere of the workshops, the students are having plenty of fun whilst learning. The aim is to have an exhibition towards the end of Term 3 at The Estuary Arts Centre to showcase the innovative results. Until then, here is a sneak peek…