Week 3: Art

While catching up with a dear friend in Chiefly Plaza today, we stumbled across an exhibition (“Contemporary Japanese & Australian Printmaking”) at the Japan Foundation Gallery. Whilst a small exhibition (50 prints), it was inspiring to walk through and examine all of the works, half of which were by Japanese printmakers, and the other half by local Sydney printmakers - celebrating ‘cultural collaboration’. I could not believe that all of these were ‘prints’; there was such diversity between all the works, highlighting the array of techniques employed. As Australian printmaking artist Neilton Clarke quotes:

“Looking at the printmaking of the two by the kind of responses it produces, Australian printmaking, notwithstanding exceptions, might be said to be more tactile and tends to move outwards towards the viewer, whereas Japanese printmaking shows a tendency towards somewhat more reticence, drawing the viewer in and often revealing itself more gradually.”

Below is a silkscreen print by Japanese artist, Narimi Ochi, titled  ‘Raging’.

As we walked through the exhibition, I was reminded of the time in Year 8 where we did a printmaking unit in art. Although slightly embarrassed by my little ability compared to all of those amazing prints I saw in the gallery, below is one I discovered in my VA scrapbook:

In our art lecture this week, we were provided with great tips as to how we were to construct and create a visual arts lesson plan. Something that stood out to me was learning about the teaching/learning process, which involves three steps: 1/ Exploring (Experimenting), 2/ Developing (Making) and 3/ Reflecting (Studying). As I create my visual lesson plans in the future (and hopefully in this upcoming prac!), I will follow this method and ensure that the ‘reflecting’ step is not in any way neglected.

In our art tutorials this week, we used our sketched portraits from last week to create cubist portraits. This involved cutting our portrait into four segments, and writing on the back of what two colour schemes we wanted painted. We randomly swapped the segments of each others portraits, and painted them in whatever colours were indicated. Not only did we use paintbrushes, but used forks, toothbrushes, sponges, rollers, etc to create a range of different and unusual effects.

Below is my cubist painting:

Finally, I have continued to do some charcoal sketches and water colour paintings in my spare time. Below are a couple that I have done recently.

And one final reflection – my Year 4 art experiences. What wonderful memories! My teacher, Mrs. K White, had a deep passion for the creative arts. We had art sessions quite often, and they were always lots of fun. Below is a painting that my dad has kept, and is hanging in his work office. The painting is of my neighbours’ cat, Albert. He was a beautiful cat, and visited my house almost daily for 13 years. He was dearly loved by my family.