Students studying Visual Arts in Year 11 and Year 12 at QACI participate in a industry-led artistic workshops for an intensive 2-days of Visual Art. Students can learn more about various artistic techniques and their application to creatively express themselves through their chosen artform. Hayley Vines, Year 12 provides her reflection following the recent Big Day In Visual Arts workshops held earlier this term.
On Wednesday 14 February, visual art students chose various workshops to personally learn from well-known artists in Australia. We had the honour of having Bruce Reynolds, an artist who grew up in Canberra, known for his award-winning sculptures on speculative archaeology, painting, and eye-capturing photography. He taught the Year 11s and 12s how to apply artistic expression using clay and plaster, utilising negative space to create indented shapes into the clay, where plaster was then poured in to form unique yet aesthetic designs.
The students brought in a variety of unique objects from their homes that they found interesting to cast, such as plastic models of people and animals, which produced fascinating and distinct patterns. Other students discarded objects and used tools to carve markings and engrave intriguing designs, creating beautiful murals. Reynolds’ interest in plaster and clay relief works stemmed from not knowing the outcome of his artworks, usually anticipating the unknown during the process.
Another artist doing a workshop on the day was Dr Bill Platz, a recurring guest for the last 3 years, a Senior Lecturer and American-Australian artist at the Queensland college of Art and design since 2009. His works centre in life drawing and exploring the human figure, one of which ways he does through his puppets. This year, his workshop centred on ‘Magic Lanterns’ – Kodak projected slides - with inspiration from the human figure.
Year 11 and 12 students explored life drawing, the body and ‘Magic Lanterns’ through a variety of mediums and drawing methods headed by Bill Platz and with a nude model as muse. As a warm-up, students learnt the fundamentals of life drawing through point perspective and techniques, then scaling their art to 3cm acetate to make projection slides. Platz then projected each student’s slides, showcasing each’s unique talents and style to create an invigorating ‘Magic Lantern’ show.
Artist Gorden Hookey headed a painting workshop with students, giving personable experiences and how they have shaped his art making. Hookey is a first-nations artist who uses his art to critique political institutions and highlight the struggles of the marginalised.
In his workshop, he told anecdotes of how his past had shaped his art making today, and lead students through creating a painted gradient and writing meaningful words on top. He has great optimism for his works, and great passion for the issues depicts. As he shared during the workshop, this comes from his own past. When he was a boy, all he could do was draw in the sand, so going to school and using paper and paint breathed a whole new light to the realms for channelling his bustling creativity. He holds this optimism dear to confronting topical themes of his art, responding as prompted by a student on which is his favourite work he’s done being “the next one.”
Students welcomed artist Elisa Jane Carmichael, an indigenous artist and a Ngugi woman, part of the Quandamooka people of Moorgumpin and Minjerribah (Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island). She took us on a weaving course where art could be expressed through intricate hand-weaved designs, using indigenous woven techniques to produce beautiful pieces. Carmichael taught students about her work and what inspired her art making, using the beauty of nature as a muse and her surrounding environment as the main references to her art making, inspiring students through the display of her exhibitions. Students used Raffia, a type of natural palm leaf where they were taught how to weave ropes, leading to weaving colourful circular patterns with various dyed Raffia.
The final artist, Emma Gardner, delivered a workshop on Cyanotype. Bringing an object of interest and personal drawings, and using an analogue photography method, students created blue and white images through contact printing. They were also introduced to Trace Monotype, a unique printmaking method that generates line drawings without the use of a printing press. The final step of this art making was employing hand stitching as a decorative technique to add line and texture.
Atricle written by Hayley Vines, Year 12