Local Ceramics

It's always a good idea to be aware of what's happening in the local art world. This can be very useful for  Junior Cert support studies and the art appreciation section of the Leaving Cert paper. Here's a link to the website gallery of local ceramic artist Thomas Lynam:
thomaslynamceramics.com/thoswrk.php
Thomas is based in Ballymahon, has just completed the Crafts Council of Ireland Ceramics Design & Skills Course in July 2010 and was a runner-up in this year's House and Home Student Designer awards: www.houseandhome.ie/blog/homebirds/student-design-awards-2010-%e2%80%93-the-runners-up/

Learning to see

I know I've said this thousands of times, but the most important thing you can do to improve your drawing skills is to learn to look, and draw what you see not what you think you should see. The second most important thing is to practice. You should be using your sketchbook every day, drawing people and actual objects around you in lots of different media (pencil, pastel, charcoal, crayon, pen etc.) If you can't actually draw somewhere practice your observation skills. Look at items around you, notice shadows and highlights. Where is the light source? What is the texture like? How would you draw it? I just found a site with good drawing lessons that can be downloaded or viewed online. Here is a good one to start with:
www.drawspace.com/lessons/view/b11 and a sample image from it:

Renaissance sites

Here are a few sites that let you explore and interact with the art and architecture of the Renaissance. Enjoy!
www.renaissanceconnection.org/main.cfm
www.mos.org/leonardo/
www.bbc.co.uk/science/leonardo/studio/

Leaving Certs don't forget about www.wga.hu and smarthistory.org also.

New students wanted

Tuesday evening classes (4.10-5.30 pm) are getting very busy lately, which is great to see, but Wednesdays (2.50-5.30pm) are still very quiet. I'm looking to recruit new third, fourth and fifth year art students. I will be putting up posters around the school during the week, but if you know anyone who you think might be interested let them know that it's not too late to start. The Junior Cert themes are out now, any new third years should be getting started on the research stage very soon, so the sooner they start the better. Fourth years and leaving certs will have some art history to catch up on, but we will be revising what we've done over the next few weeks. I look forward to seeing lots of new faces in the art room in the next few weeks. There is still room for a few more 1st, 2nd and TYs too.

Henry Moore

I'm setting the Fouth and Fifth Years the task of creating short videos to teach each other about some sculptors on the Leaving Cert course. I thought I should try it out first, so here is a short example. The audio files came from sample music on my computer and www.kew.org/henry-moore/explore/index.shtml - 1. Large Reclining Figure. Lots more information can be found there on Henry Moore. All images were downloaded from google images. I used Windows Movie Maker to make the video.

Visual Brainstorming

The Tuesday evening group (1st, 2nd and TY) are continuing their research and carried out some visual brainstorming yesterday. Here are a few examples:

First and Second year project

The first and second years (and some TYs) are working on a project at the moment which is designed to explore the world of art from ancient mythology to modern day film and to challenge notions of what constitutes good art. Inspiration for the brief came from the Tim Burton exhibition that I visited in July (see earlier post). His teenage sketches helped him cope with the isolation he felt living in suburbia and later developed into concepts for his film characters and sets. We have looked at early drawings for Edward Scissorshands, The Joker from Batman, The Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland and Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate factory, as well as other fantasy creatures and concept sketches. We linked this with ancient mythology (Aztec, Inca, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, African, North American and Australian) and artists such as Bosch, Dali and Francis Bacon. We are still at the research stage, but I'm looking forward to showcasing some of the work here later. The final task will be to create a fantasy creature, machine, building, plant or other lifeform combining any to these.

As part of the challange of thinking in different ways, here are a few samples of one of last week's research tasks - a sheet of paper was taken apart and put back together any way the students decided. They then had to write the story of their creation - What is it? How does it feel? Where is it? Where is it going? What is it doing? The results were interesting - a sad giant in a barren wasteland, left behind after the Giant's Causeway broke; a bat who had been raised by ailens; a mutated pac-man who was just dumped by his girlfriend and a stairs that goes nowhere in a confusing bungalow are a few examples.

TY self-portraits 2011

The TYs are working on self-portraits at the moment. Click on the image to see the web album of work in progress. The brief asks them to explore their personality through art and portray it in a mixed media portrait. The album will be updated as the work develops and finished pieces with be exhibited later in the year.

Being creative

Being creative is vital for any art project. Creativity is very hard to define, but put simply it is about making unusual connections and using these connections to create something unique and valuable. Putting effort into your research is important to generate lots of ideas and help you to make these connections. To see things in different ways you must first learn how to look. The examples here are from a past pupil of St. Mel's artroom, Aaron Canning. He has just started second year in the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) studying Visual Communications. These pictures are from his exhibition at the end of his first Core year. What you don't see here is the process, large amounts of research that led to these finished pieces.

Click on the images to see them larger. The finished pieces combined image and text with words illustrating the interior of a video recorder, visually documenting the connections between the pieces that allow the whole lot to work together.

What is Art?

This is a question that has been asked often in our art room. This year's projects are designed to challange previous notions of what an artwork is, or should be. This short video might generate a few more ideas: