Nationwide Drawing Day

This Saturday 22nd May is Nationwide Drawing Day. There are free events happening all over the country, see www.nationalgallery.ie/html/venuesdrawingday2010.html for details. The nearest one seems to be in the Solas Gallery in Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim www.solasart.ie/2010/05/national-drawing-day-saturday-may-22nd/
Even if you can't get to an event try to draw something on Saturday to mark the day.

Drawing ideas

Here's a link I found with nice drawing ideas to keep you busy over the summer:

www.theaccidentalartist.com/content/drawing/100-creative-drawing-ideas

There are also lots more tips and ideas on the site, so explore the links down the side and click on the titles for the full article or video. Have fun!!

A couple of art history links

First of all I want to say well done to all the Junior and Leaving certs this week. Hopefully the results will reflect the effort you all put in. Now that the practical exams are over it's time for Leaving Certs to focus on art history again. Here are a couple of sites that should be useful for revision and also interesting for anyone else who wants to have a look.

http://smarthistory.org/
For the European Art question. This is a multimedia art history book. Click on the time line (e.g. Renaissance) down the side and then on the photos for more info. There are articles, reproductions of paintings and other artefacts as well as some videos.

http://www.shadowsandstone.com/
For the Irish Art question. This is the website of Irish photographer Ken Williams and features some beautiful photos of many of the passage graves we looked at including Newgrange and Lough Crew. There is also some information and useful links (Look under Ireland on the home page).

http://www.hughlane.ie
For the Art Appreciation question. This might help your memories of the gallery trip. If you want to look up information on the Francis Bacon exhibition we saw follow the links to 2009 past exhibitions. There's also lots of other interesting information on the site so explore it. Enjoy!

KELZO-GrAfFiTi DuDe

http://www.urbandamage.co.uk/ : great site for people interested in graffiti.

Some interesting ceramics

There are loads of interesting sites that might inspire your art work and help you develop techniques. I'm going to highlight some here as I come across them. Here's a few links for ceramics for a start:

ceramicartsdaily.org/
This site is updated everyday and often features instructional videos and lots of other tips. All of these are archived, you just need to follow the links. They also showcase different ceramic artists' work often.

www.visual-arts-cork.com/ceramics.htm
Visual Arts Cork is a great site for all aspects of art history, especially the Irish section and there are links for further information. The link above gives you a quick history of ceramics.

www.amrobinsonceramicart.co.uk/
Here's an interesting Irish ceramic artist that I just came across. Have a look at her gallery for very colourful examples of her recent work.

You'll also find lots more unusual Irish ceramics here:
www.irishcontemporaryceramics.ie/profiles.html
(click on some of the images for large versions)

Art Club members wanted

The new Art Club is meeting at lunchtime on Fridays from 12.45. New members are always welcome. The emphasis is on enjoying art and experimenting with different media, techniques and subjects. Come along on Fridays to find out more.

TY art exhibition

The TY students had a very successful art exhibition in Backstage in March along with their production of A Life in the Day of Tom Young. On display were their expressive self-portraits, ceramics and photography. At the moment they are working on a textile wall display for the end of year. Here's a few images from the exhibition for anyone who missed it.

Busy week ahead in the art room

Hi all,
This is the new blog for St Mel's College Art Department. The idea is to keep everyone up to date with what's happening in the art room and maybe get some more students interested in joining us. Hopefully we'll have lots of interesting work to showcase here in the future.
This week is going to be a very busy week as the Junior Certs have just finished the projects they have been working on since October and they have their practical exam on Tuesday from 9.30am to 12.30pm.
On Thursday we have the Leaving Cert Craft exam all day. They are attempting ceramics for the first time this year, so hopefully all will go well on the day. On Friday they have their Still Life exam in the morning and Life Drawing exam after lunch.
Best of luck to everyone in the practicals, I'm sure you'll all do very well.