Visual Arts in Focus 

Spring has sprung in the art rooms 

Year 7A Visual Art classes have been discovering the work of renowned Australian artist Margaret Preston. Inspired by her work, students explored a range of techniques to create their own still life drawings. They began by using soft pencil techniques to establish an underpinning for their compositions, before adding bold black marker lines to define their forms. Finally, soft pastels were layered over the drawings to introduce colour and create a vibrant, expressive finish. 

Staff social 

The Art Department welcomed SMC staff back to the art rooms for another creative social event after work on Friday 4 September. With a splash of pink, double denim or a little bit of sparkle, staff arrived ready to get creative and were greeted by Dolly Parton herself (in cardboard form, of course).

After mixing up some colours and getting stuck into their Dolly portraits, staff created their masterpieces to the sounds of Dolly and other country music icons filling the art rooms. 

It was fantastic to see everyone getting into the spirit of the afternoon and putting their own unique spin on their portraits. The results were fabulous, and there were plenty of laughs along the way.

Senior artwork in the making 

It’s a privilege for art teachers to get to watch their Year 11 and 12 Art students’ skills and confidence grow throughout the year. We get to see their work at every stage of the creative process, from those early ideas and experiments through to the finished pieces, and have the opportunity to discuss, question and critique their work together as young artists.

Looking across some of the current senior artworks-in-progress is a great reminder of just how much time, thought, experimentation and commitment can go into a single piece of work. Something easy to forget when we see a finished artwork for just a few minutes in an exhibition.

As you can see, we have a very committed and skilled group of Visual Art 3 students this year, and we are excited to welcome many of them back into the art rooms next year to continue their creative journey through Art Studio Practice 3.