Recent work

First and Second years have been drawing natural objects in line and tone over the last few weeks. They are now developing these into designs for lino prints. Third years have also been practicing their drawing skills and coming up with some of their own ideas for artworks, while fourth years and leaving certs have been getting to grips with Impressionism, life drawing and portfolio project ideas. Here are some images of the first and second years' work:

Art documentaries

The documentaries that we have watched so far on Monet and Manet along with loads more can be accessed at (click on The Impressionists on the righthandside):
art.docuwat.ch/videos/?channel_id=0
There's lots of useful links for the Leaving Cert art history course and other areas of art and design appreciation.

We're back!

All classes started back this week. Welcome to all the new students and those returning for another year. Here's some still-life drawings from 3rd, 4th and 5th years.

 

Book of Kells in the 100 objects

The Irish Times history of Ireland in 100 objects is still continuing (see earlier posts). This week it features the Book of Kells. You can read it below:
www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0827/1224303040902.html

Back to School time

Welcome back to all for the new school year. Art for First and Second years and TYs starts back on Tuesday 6th September from 4.10 to 5.30 and for Third and Fourth years and Leaving Certs on Wednesday 7th September from 2.50 to 5.30. See you then.

New Creativity Centre opening in Ardagh

Ardagh Heritage and Creativity Centre is opening with a Family Fun Day on 20th August. Free workshops are being held all during Heritage Week from 22nd to 26th August. See www.creativeardagh.com for full details.

100 objects continues

www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0625/1224299565883.html

Keep an eye here over the summer for some more links, art history notes and some photos from the practical exams coming soon.

History of Ireland in 100 objects

I've posted links to some of these before, but here is the museum site that has links to all objects so far: http://www.museum.ie/en/info/100-objects.aspx
There's some very interesting objects including a 5000 year old handbag and 15m Bronze Age Canoe. They all give some background information for the early Irish art history section of the Leaving Cert paper.

Impressionism

The Leaving Cert art history exam is approaching fast so here are some links on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism which should help the revision. There's lots of information on smarthistory: smarthistory.org/impressionism-france.html smarthistory.org/post-impressionism.html
and artdocuwat.ch has a whole series on the Impressionists starting with Monet: art.docuwat.ch/videos/impressionists/impressionists-01-claude-monet/?channel_id=19&skip=0 Enjoy!

Just out of the kiln

Here's some of the work that came out of the kiln this week. It includes pieces from First Years to Leaving Certs and some experiments with glazes.

National Drawing Day

It's time for National Drawing Day again on 28th May. You can find details of all events here: www.nationalgallery.ie/en/Learning/Lifelong Learning and Courses/Drawing Courses/Drawing Day.aspx

and details of events close to Longford are here: www.solasart.ie/2011/05/national-drawing-day-2011/
and here: www.facebook.com/pages/The-Very-Small-Gallery/130975053640890

The Gleninsheen Gorget

The Gleninsheen Gorget is this week's addition to the history of Ireland in 100 objects. Check out the details here: www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0507/1224296351257.html

Bronze age hoard

There was an article in the Irish Times last week on a bronze age hoard which would be relevant for the Irish art history section. You can access it here: www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0430/1224295739750.html

Some inspiration for pottery

The Leaving Certs are now busy preparing for their practical exams. Here are a few links that I thought might be useful for the craft exam. For all you ever wanted to know about Louis le Brocquy try here: www.anne-madden.com/LeBPages/lebrocquy.html There's lots about Harry Clarke here: www.harryclarke.net Click on the windows tab at the top to browse images, you can zoom in on most of them. You can also browse the Harry Clarke collection at the National Gallery of Ireland here (search for Harry Clarke): onlinecollection.nationalgallery.ie Information on Pauline Bewick is available here: www.paulinebewick.ie
I didn't find much on Cecil King but here are some links: www.imma.ie/en/page_170636.htm and from the Hugh Lane gallery online collection: emuseum.pointblank.ie/online_catalogue/artist-detail.php?id=6

Typical afternoon in the art room

We had a typical busy afternoon in our art room today. Second years were working on film props and lino-prints, Junior Certs, in the final stages of their projects now, with paintings and 3d being the main focus today. Two TYs came in for Gaisce experience and did some drawing and modelled for Junior Cert prep-work. Fourth years are working on preparatory studies for craftwork and Leaving Certs were practising hand-building and throwing pottery on the wheel in advance of getting their exam papers next Friday. With all this going on at once I was worn out by 5.30 but found some time to take some pictures as they worked:

Photo editor

I just found an online alternative to photoshop which seems quite good: http://pixlr.com/editor/

TY animation project

The TYs have just started what I hope will be an inspiring animation project. We are exploring different styles of animation from traditional hand-drawn images and stop-motion modelling to computer generated images. The idea is to explore the world around them through animation and we have taken four recent news items as our starting points. One group will be developing a campaign video for a young politician, putting forward their own vision for the future of Ireland, taking the Dylan Haskins campaign as inspiration: www.dylanhaskins.ie
The inspiration for the second group's project is taken from Upstart's aim to put creativity at the centre of public consciousness during the Irish General Election Campaign in 2011: www.upstart.ie
Group three is asking the question "Do hard times make for great art?" www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0122/1224288049794.html 
The final group are also focusing on how street art comments on life taking inspiration from adwart.com/gameoflove/ which was designed in memory of the couple who tragically drowned on that stretch of canal during the big freeze in December. 
It will be interesting to see how it develops, hopefully we'll showcase the results here on completion.

Bits and pieces

Here's a few images from the art room over the last week or two. Some of the TYs, including band members, came in after school to make the banner for Freefall, best of luck to them in the final of Longford Youth Factor tonight.

Art on Google

Google have launched a great new website www.googleartproject.com that allows you to look inside art galleries from around the world. You can take a tour of the gallery, examine the paintings and zoom in for a closer view. There's lots of information on the galleries, artists and works available from the drop down menus and links to you tube videos and the gallery websites. You could cover the whole art history course from here, without having to travel around the world. Here's one link to get you started: www.googleartproject.com/museums/thyssen/swaying-dancer-dancer-in-green-12
See what else you can find, enjoy!

Tate kids website

I thought some of you might like this link, you can add your own graffiti to the Tate museum wall here: kids.tate.org.uk/games/street-art/ There's also lots more to discover on the Tate gallery site so follow some of the links and explore it.

Year of Craft 2011

2011 has been designated the Year of Craft by the Craft Council of Ireland and Craft Northern Ireland. To celebrate traditional skills and contemporary work events and activities including exhibitions and workshops will be running throughout the country all year. Check out www.craftinireland.com for more details.
Showcase 2011 which features the diverse work of Irish designers and craftspeople from ceramics and jewellery to soap and scarves is currently running in the RDS. Have a look at the website, especially the gallery: showcaseireland.com/gallery/ to get an idea of the wide range of crafts on display.

Restoration of St. Mel's Cathedral Stained Glass

There's an article in today Irish Times about the restoration of the Harry Clarke Studios stained glass windows in St. Mel's Cathedral. You can read it in full here: www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0121/1224288004269.html

A photo montage of a section of the new stained glass window at St Mel's Cathedral, Longford, by Abbey Stained Glass Studio in Dublin.Photograph: Ken Ryan (from today's Irish Times)

The Moderns app

If any of you have an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad you can download a new app for the Moderns exhibition in IMMA at http://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/the-moderns/id414863276?mt=8
It should be a useful reminder of our gallery trip for fourth and fifth years and hopefully others might find it interesting too.

TY book project

The TYs are starting a book project today. Hopefully this will give them some inspiration. All images were found through Google searches and put together in MovieMaker.

Art history video project

Fourth and fifth years got a crash course in Windows Movie Maker today and researched some Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists at the same time. Two of the videos were completed before the end of class. Hopefully they will be useful for quick revision of the leaving cert course later, more will follow but here are quick introductions to Renoir and Pissaro.

Happy New Year

Welcome back everyone. Tuesday's group (First, Second and Third Years) are focusing on one of the Junior Cert themes 'Tone and Texture' for the next few weeks. Here's a couple of unfinished still life drawings from yesterday: