SHOWCASE ART STUDENT

Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said, “The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless”. Read on to find out how our student artists have been pushing their boundaries in art.

Infant

Art Is A Journey

By Emma Lambourne and Iemke Dry, Infant School Teachers

Art education in the Infant school plays a crucial role in the overall development of the children. Art is not just about creating a final product; it is also about the process and techniques used to create it.

The process of creating art is a journey that helps children explore their imagination and develop their creative skills. It allows them to experiment with different materials, textures, and colours and see what works best for them. It encourages children to think outside the box; to be imaginative and come up with new ideas. Even more importantly, through safe experimentation children are pushed outside their comfort zone, becoming risktakers and gaining new skills and knowledge.

Technique development is also a crucial part of art education at Tanglin. Children learn how to use different tools and materials, such as paints, crayons, and clay, and how to apply different techniques to their artwork. This not only helps them improve their artistic skills but also gives them a sense of accomplishment and pride in their work.

This term the children have continued to be exposed to a variety of mediums and techniques, inspired by great works of art. We explored the work of artists such as Peter Thorpe, Jackson Pollock and Mondrian and the children experimented with their techniques, styles, and mediums.

We understand that art is about the journey, not just the destination. Each child found value in the experiences; for some it was exciting, while others found it relaxing and a source of communication as they chatted about what they created collaboratively. »

ART AHOY!

By Peter Hinckley, Head of Junior Art & Design

V‘icious Vikings!’ is the exciting theme for Year 3 in Term 2 and what a fabulous inspiration for the Year 3 children to link their art lessons to the Year 3 humanities focus, providing an ideal opportunity to explore their painting skills in their own interpretation of an adventurous Viking longship crossing a stormy sea.

From an Art skills perspective, the project provided an excellent opportunity to focus on key colour mixing skills, colour layering application and fine brush technique. The children learned the key parts of a paintbrush including different ways to hold a brush depending on the preferred mark making outcome. In addition, they discovered the purpose of the ferrule and how to successfully apply paint to a canvas.

Focusing on a more advanced painting technique, the Year 3 students were introduced to the technique of block colour layering. First, they applied an opaque layer of white acrylic paint on the sail and shields before applying additional layers of bright colours without the underlying colourful skyscapes diminishing the vibrancy.

The children were delighted that they could create their own choice of skyscape and weather and painted bright colourful sails and shields. To create a more vibrant and exciting seascape the children mixed a range of blues, greens, and greys, and were enthusiastic to use different brushstrokes to show the movement of the waves. Throughout this project, the Year 3 children were encouraged to explore their own design ideas including designing their own ship’s figurehead and stern.

From an aesthetics and creative viewpoint and moving away from the popular image of Viking longships having red and white striped sails, the students were encouraged to be creative and imaginative in their own ideas for the Viking shields and sail decoration.

Senior

Artistic Opportunities

By Elizabeth Anstiss, Head of Senior Art & Design

Enrichment opportunities at Tanglin take many guises. Within the Senior Art department, we dedicate time and space for external artist workshops. We have strong relationships with many local and international artists, and we invite them to our studios annually to share their expertise and practice with our students. Tanglin’s co-curriculum mission states that it provides ‘a means through which we can open more doors to a student, and offer opportunities that allow a variety of skills, pursuits and pleasures to remain part of their lives beyond school’. This is precisely what these interactions offer.

This term we have had the privilege to welcome UK based artist Ian Murphy into our studios. Ian is a contemporary British Fine Artist who gained initial success with selection to the British Young Contemporary Artists in 1985. He is best known for his powerful, tonal drawings and atmospheric, mixed media oil paintings of architectural places. I always enjoy his workshops as he captivates the students within the first 30 seconds. Ian explains his process and intentions fantastically to the students. His values and philosophies of art education are aligned with ours; mainly reiterating that the intention must always be at the forefront of any work we create. Ian worked with all our Year 10 Art and Graphics students. He also ran a session with our Year 12s. The students enjoyed getting messy with graphite power and the outcomes were tremendous largescale tonal drawings.

Most recently Chen Shitong has provided a collagraphy workshop for our Year 12 IB and A level Art students. Collagraphy is a printmaking process introduced in 1955 by Glen Alps in which materials are applied to a rigid substrate (such as paperboard or wood). The word is derived from the Greek word koll or kolla, meaning glue, and graph, meaning the activity of drawing. Through this process students can push their ideas beyond the representational and simply enjoy the artistic formal elements of texture and colour. The students spent three sessions exploring the technique, developing their skills, and interacting with a true specialist in the artist community.

As we look forward, I endeavour to carve out more opportunities like this for our students not just in the Upper School and Sixth Form, but throughout the whole school. ■