《声音》启明星专刊 VOICES for Daystar Academy VOICES Fall/Winter Edition 2018 | Page 31

ART CORNER
this rich and interesting location. The observational
drawings they did were an important learning activity
because a key condition for successful drawing is
successful looking - In order to draw well and draw
with precision, one must first observe carefully and
analytically. The students therefore applied a range of
strategies for achieving representational accuracy by
measuring, counting and comparing. So, by spending
a couple of hours drawing certain plants, the students
were in effect studying the unique forms of these
objects with an intensity that most of us never take the
time to do, and in doing so, they were able to acquire a
rare familiarity with their subjects.
In addition to the field studies (drawings) they did, the
students also took a great many close-up photographs
of some of the plants that captured their attentions.
And it was these photographs that were later to be
reviewed and reflected upon and evaluated on their
return to school. These evaluations sought to identify
those images which might be most suitable for being
developed into large scale, realized paintings – paintings
that perhaps focused on the small details that are often
missed by casual observers of flowers and plants. An
additional goal for some students, was to magnify
sections of their botanical forms to such an extent that
the final composition might border on abstraction, just
as some of the renowned American painter, Georgia
O’Keeffe’s paintings did.
The paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe were a huge
influence on students in this unit in terms of
composition and content. The student’s research into
O’Keeffe’s paintings revealed how interested she was
in exploring the formal qualities of colour, shape, space
and texture when painting organic forms, and it was
a desire to explore these same formal qualities that
guided the students in the planning and execution of
their own compositional ideas. The Grade 8’s have
therefore produced a body of artworks in which the
balance between positive and negative space - with
the goal of achieving compositional balance – has been
carefully considered, and where the shapes of sections
of the plants have been thoughtfully selected - with the
intention of stimulating curiosity and intrigue among
audiences.
In late January 2019 we will be staging a Middle School
Art exhibition in the Ming Yi Building. All are welcome
to come along and take a look through the students’
artworks, artists’ statements and process journals. It is
hoped that you will then see for yourselves the concrete
impact of place-based learning on our Grade 8’s.
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