Visual Arts in Focus 

Welcoming Mrs Giannaros to Visual Arts 

Over the past five weeks, we have been very lucky to welcome Mrs Giannaros, a UTAS pre-service teacher, to the Visual Arts Department as she completes her final teaching placement. 

Working with our Senior School Visual Arts students, Mrs Giannaros has thrown herself into school life, planning and delivering lessons, supporting students through their artmaking and gaining valuable experience across our art and ceramics programs. 

It has been wonderful to see her confidence grow throughout her placement, and she has been a fantastic addition to the Visual Arts team. 

We wish Mrs Giannaros all the best as she finishes her final placement and takes the next step towards her teaching career.

Art on show 

Mrs Jo Boyd’s Year 8 Art classes (8B, 8C and 8D) have been busy throughout Term 3 creating artworks inspired by Tasmania’s beautiful landscape and exploring how elements of weather can be interpreted through art. 

Students have produced a wonderful range of work, experimenting with both 2D and 3D techniques. From using grids as a compositional device to mastering the hot glue gun to construct sculptural pieces, students have demonstrated focus, creativity and persistence as they designed, assembled and refined their artworks. 

To round off the unit, students are currently creating ceramic pieces, which we look forward to showcasing next term once they are completed. Well done on a fantastic term of creativity and hard work! 

Exploring environments and gardens of paradise in Years 7 and 8

This term, Mrs Anna Berger's Year 7 and 8 Art classes have been exploring natural landscapes and environments, with students being challenged to combine new media techniques with hands-on project design. 

In their 'Flora and Fauna' unit, Year 7 B, C and D students explored the connection between wildlife and habitat by drawing detailed landscapes inside animal silhouettes. 

Learning key techniques in watercolour painting, fine-liner pen detailing and depth composition (foreground, midground and background), they unified each creature with its natural environment. 

Meanwhile, Year 8A students embarked on an Environments unit, examining diverse 'Gardens of Paradise' from the Garden of Eden and exotic jungles to formal and fantasy landscapes. Inspired by these concepts, students designed multi-layered compositions split into distinct foreground, midground and background sections. Using pencil, watercolour and fine-liner pens, they then cut and reassembled their layers into egg cartons. The results were stunning, with dynamic 3D dioramas reminiscent of miniature theatre sets coming to life. 

Looking for something fun to do these school holidays? 

Youth ARC runs a free drop-in program – OPEN ACCESS – from Tuesday to Friday from 1.00pm–4.45pm, during the school holidays for young people aged 12–25. This is a great opportunity to hang out and meet new friends, get involved in a workshop, chat with youth workers and, most importantly, have fun. 

Youth ARC is an amazing community environment in the city for young people to socialise in a safe, drug- and alcohol-free space. In addition to their art room, they have an art gallery, eight-ball tables, a band room, dance stage and mirrors, music studio, table tennis, video games and general hang-out space. They really do provide something for everyone. 

Check out their current program and facilities on their website: www.youthartsandrec.org/About

Free creative youth arts workshops at Kickstart Arts in New Town are running from Saturday 3 October. Children and young people aged 8–18 can join free workshops hosted by a range of awesome teaching artists. Come along and learn stop‑motion animation, puppet‑making, board‑game design, beading, Pokémon‑style cards featuring Australian animals, acting, dancing, weaving, creative writing, screen acting and more. 

No experience is necessary, but places are limited, so book early via their website or the QR code on the below flyer.

Kickstart Arts is supported by the Tasmanian Government, Creative Hobart and Creative Australia.