Visual Arts

from St Edward's College 2021 Year Book

Year 12

Visual Art

Sarah Evans

Despite the year being so broken into various learning platforms, the practical subjects of Visual Arts and Photography have been busier than ever. In fact, given the rise of the need for advertising, marketing, social media, graphics, design, photography, and the arts to make our online world more engaging, Visual Arts and Photography have been evolving into the future.

Visual Arts and Photography continue to be extremely popular subjects with the students of St Edward’s. These subjects allow the students to experience a wide array of media, techniques, and chances to express their creativity. Themes explored this year have ranged from Surrealism to Contemporary Animation techniques as well as film making and digital multimedia drawing and painting. Students have learned about the connections between the artist and their art making practice and how these are influenced by world-wide issues and events. Visual Arts and Photography aims to encourage the students to break out of the microcosm of their lives and be exposed to perspectives other than those they are familiar with.

Stage 4 Visual Arts

The art and literacy of Graeme Base and his book “Uno’s Garden” and Surrealism were themes explored by our Year 7 Visual Arts students. To introduce them to the world of Art and a variety of artmaking materials, they created a body of work including a drawing and ceramic interpretation of their own Uno’s Garden creature, and a continuous line self-portrait demonstrating their knowledge of the elements and principles of design – specifically colour. The

Year 8 Art

Art Exhabition Incursion

Ceramics

Q Station Excursion boys were also introduced to a basic level of Adobe Photoshop software, including layering, blending, and creating our own social media banners and GIFs.

Water was the theme for our Year 8 Visual Arts students. The boys created an interesting body of work including tonal drawings, a ceramic vessel using oxides, underglazes and glazes all based on water images. They created a lino print using their water images as inspiration. Students used their Visual Arts diary to document their artmaking practice and studied a range of artists including Zaria Foreman, who uses her art making to create awareness of climate change and the effects of global warming.

Stage 5 Visual Arts and Photography

Year 9 Photography and Digital Media students enjoyed working with themes such as People, Places and Still-Life using Mini Figures. Working with Photoshop, the boys created some exciting digitally enhanced images. The boys were also able to extend their growing knowledge of the basics of using the

DSLR camera by being involved in Long Exposure and Light Painting workshops. They created their own online gallery using Adobe Spark and they have become keen photographers.

The Year 9 Visual Arts students started the year with Still Life, producing some wonderful bodies of work that highlighted their talent using a variety of different media. They were able to translate their Still Life painting into a Photoshop image and then use collage in the style of Picasso to recreate the base graphics on a skateboard deck. They were able to use Posca paint pens to further refine their own graphic and then cover the whole board using resin. They then explored ceramics, creating a gargoyle using buff raku clay, which they decorated with oxides and underglazes.

Year 10 Photography students have worked with enthusiasm on a range of themes and techniques creating digitally enhanced images and film. Several themes focusing on Portraiture and the Urban Environment saw the students push the boundaries of image making in both still and moving forms. After an exciting visit to Manly Quarantine Station, photos were double exposed with ghosts and then various filters were applied to make them look very spooky. The photos were so successful, Q station showed them on their social media pages. The boys then started creating their own music video, using pre-made footage and their own choice of music, editing their film using Adobe Premier Pro.

Visual Art

Our Year 10 Visual Arts students studied Portraiture as a unit focused on the Archibald Prize and the Nature Abstracted unit throughout the year. Working in the media areas of drawing, painting, printmaking such as lino and screen printing, they had the opportunity to develop and refine their artmaking skills using nature to inspire their artworks. The boys had the opportunity to work with online portrait artists, giving them a valuable experience in composition, colour mixing and layering and produced artworks that were of an exceptional standard – proving their capacity to work as artists moving forward into senior study.

Senior Visual Arts and Photography

It has been an extremely busy year for our HSC students in Visual Arts completing a major work alongside the theory components of the course is a huge job even during a normal year. Throw COVID-19, lockdowns and Home-Based Learning into the mix and the challenge becomes far greater.

We could not be more proud of the boys’ efforts this year and especially over the last term. Despite the many challenges thrown their way, they produced fantastic work and maintained their focus. Each student’s Body of Work demonstrated their passion and skill in their chosen discipline and form. Works ranged from drawing, painting and sculpture to graphic design, animation, and sitespecific installations. The boys explored several contemporary themes such as mental health, risky young adult behaviours, masculinity, and the desire for perfection. Other works explored more personal concepts of the student’s relationship with nature and place. Each student should be extremely proud of the piece they presented, especially since the majority of the works were completed at home under their own direction.

2021 was the first year that HSC Trial exams were completed online. In Visual Arts we aimed to keep the exam as true to form as possible and the boys hand wrote their exam, sitting at their computer, under timed conditions. The boys were extremely professional in their approach and took this variation to the exam format in their stride. Most students worked with a focused and driven approach, determined not to allow their circumstances to define the years of work they have put in to lead up to this moment.

We wish all our Year 12 students the best of luck in their final exams and hope they continue to find the strength and motivation to carry on in the lead up. They have been dealt a very challenging hand and have not experienced the usual end to Year 12 that we know and love. Despite this, they have kept their heads high and displayed immense amounts of resilience and initiative. We wish them all the best in future.