Visual Arts

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2022, and welcome your input:

Danielle Haines (Visual Arts)  danielle.haines@education.vic.gov.au 

An Overview of our Learning

Foundation students have been continuing to develop their painting and cutting skills with our turtle project. They have been learning all about tools we use to create art and how it doesn't always have to be with a brush. Students have used all sorts of things to print patterns and shapes onto their turtle and used sponges to print some amazing coral for our turtle environment. I am so happy to see the progress that every single student is making with their cutting skills and their creative painting. 

Year 1 and 2 added the finishing touches for project 'Joy' with a touch of glitter. Sparkles sure do bring them lots of joy with some very enthusiastic sprinkling! 

The autumn leaves are starting to fall but it gave us a chance to have a chat about the seasons and think about how we know what season it is by what nature is doing. We examined autumn landscapes by artists such as Monet and Kandinsky as well as contemporary artists to see how they represented the seasons in their work. The most telling tale was that the trees are all different colours and starting to lose their leaves. We took this knowledge and painted our own autumn landscapes, drawing trees, choosing colours and creating a reflection in the water. 

What an amazing result for our seascape paintings. Each one is unique with students seriously thinking about what details would make their work different from the rest and reflect their style. I am so proud of the hard work and resilience all the students put in to this many layered project. 

This week year 3 and 4 have examined the landscape works of Jen Aranyi, a contemporary American artist. A graphic designer by day, Aranyi draws and paints simple landscapes with amazing coloured skies and sells them in her online shop. Students have been practicing her style in their art books and experimenting with different colour combinations using watercolour paints. This process of planning and trial and error can be difficult for some who just want to jump in to the final piece, but it is an essential step in any creation process, be it art, writing, building or inventing.

Year 5 and 6 students have finished off their space drawings and have turned their knowledge of shading to a pipescape drawing. Students are developing their ability to control the pressure of the pencil to create the illusion of form in a 2D drawing. Students worked with a variety of lines and shapes to decide on a layout for their work, creating a piece of art that has depth and dimension. This task requires a lot of patience and resilience as they try to achieve the look they desire. We are starting to see these artworks come together with fantastic results.