Contribution by Ms Ingrid Beekhuizen
During the past weeks, we enjoyed opportunities to develop skills in many areas linked to our inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values through art; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; and developing our appreciation of the aesthetic. We started the unit of inquiry with a walk into the centre of Delft, where students took photos of what they considered to be art. We had lively discussions as to what art is, and who decides something is/is not art and generated interesting questions to consider and research. Whittling Workshop We had a fascinating workshop learning to whittle with Teresa Hunyadi www.teresahunyadi.com . She showed us how to whittle small birds from branches, with some amazing results. It was great fun learning to work with very sharp whittling knives.
Transdisciplinary arts
We are currently exploring the link between emotions, visual art, movement, and music, as well as sketching and drawing with pastels with Anna Dumon at www.annadumon.art.
Here are Anna’s reflections on the workshop
Autumn trees
“Inspired by the very vividly coming season we were today learning about the concept and importance of sketching and inspiration through other artists’ works, art styles, music and a little unplanned performing arts/music sketch – we were looking at the actual scenery as well and imagined what does the tree look like in our mind. We also did a collaborative class poster – a live drawing on Vivaldi’s Autumn theme. Next lesson we will focus on pastel and aquarelle techniques staying in the Fall – post-impressionism inspired picture.”
What we learned:
- inspiration can come from other forms of Art, our close environment and of our own imagination/mind ~ a blend of it altogether
- Importance of a sketch as a rough foundation work in an art process
- Working with pastels (an introduction)
- Working on a large format live collaborative drawing
- Art appreciation
In group 7 we are working towards individual paintings and drawings with a focus on understanding the basic visual art techniques, how to use art tools correctly and taking the skills to another level.
