Our current exhibition at St. Julian's Palacio

I wish to share with you a few pages from our school magazine with examples of work from year 6 to year 9, which are now on display in our gallery in the Palacio. These pages were published on the Lighthouse magazine two weeks ago.

Drawing bottles and glasses

Today I found these images of last summer's year 9 internal art exams . We ask students to draw a bottle and a glass using a pencil. They have one hour and 20 minutes to do it and we ask them to try to apply all the techniques they have learned to the best of their ability. We then mark them on specific criteria such as quality of line, shading, mark making, composition etc. Looking at these I am impressed with how our students can draw at this age.

Art Trip to Vieira da Silva

Orient Museum Visit

Last week we took out year 12 and 13 students to the Museu do Oriente in Alcântara. We spent the day looking at shadow puppets, funerary sculptures and miniature japanese inrôs and netsukes. Our students heard stories about the collections and the cultural traditions and myths behind the artwork and were allowed to make drawings. This was a great experience for all of them and here I present some images of the day.
We want to thank Constança Arouca, our guide and lecturer for such a fascinating day.



 

Black, white and the paper in the middle...

One of the most effective ways of teaching our young pupils how to observe light and shadow when looking at three dimensional objects and then how to reproduce that observation onto a drawing is the following:

 - Use black and white drawing materials (chalk and charcoal work very well)
 - Work on coloured paper (make sure the colour is lighter than the black and darker than the white material you draw with).
 - Draw only the darkest shadows and the lightest spots of light.
 - Always leave paper in between the black and the white.

 Et Voilà!

A series of drawings by year 8 students (I swear!):

Farewell to David Smith

Our Headmaster David Smith is leaving and tonight we had a farewell party in the patio of the school. There were some amazing musical moments and I was thrilled to find an old friend in the crowd, who I hadn't seen in several years. Terry Williams came all the way from Bristol to say hello and join us in the party. I met Terry in my first year at St. Julian's. I was the Art technician and early in the first term I found myself involved in the making of a large number of props for the play "His Dark Materials" directed by Darren Scully, our Head of Drama at the time.  Terry was with me most of the time, drawing and making props as well. I quickly discovered Terry's great talent to draw and capture the most genuine, often unflattering traits of all of us who lingered around him for long enough. I spent most of my time laughing with his sketches and his hilarious sense of humour.  How great to see him today!!!!
 Saying this, I am sorry to have to say goodbye to David, for me, the only headmaster in the place where I have been for the past eight years. I have enjoyed so much working under his wing. Thank you David!

 

Above are two different but equally faithful depictions of David by Terry Williams.

FABULOUS!!!!!!

The Well

Our Art Department is located in what would have been a cellar of an 18th century palace.....Yes, it sounds amazing but it has its issues (absence of windows and natural light is one). Even though we do have struggle with lack of space, we enjoy the intimate character of our studios. We also enjoy a spectacularly stable temperature (just like a great cellar). We are never very cold or very hot. In a busy day, I sometimes am completely unaware of the weather outside.

One of the outstanding features of our department is the well....We have a well in the middle of the studio, with water and all. There are stories around the well. Someone told me that a gun was once found in it.
We struggled to find use to the well. I sometimes try to convince our younger students that if they don't behave they might end up in detention inside the well.

Meanwhile, we fill it with junk and turn it into a still-life composition. Its the perfect introduction for year 10 students (who start by hating us teachers, and then become very proud of their achievements)

 

Cross-hatching

Giorgio Morandi (Italian, 1890–1964)

Still Life

Date:

1927

Medium:

Etching

Hatching is an essential skill for printing and we teach it to our younger students in year 7. One of the artists we have used to help students understand how to create a variety of textures and tones using a high contrast markmaking device (more specifically, a pen), is Giorgio Morandi. We choose him because he works in still life (as we do with our students in this project) but also because his hatching technique is quite simple compared to a more elaborate style such as what is present in Piranesi's etchings. Here are some of the best works I have photographed last year:

This is a very skilled girl in year 7 who made a serious effort to observe light and shadow and depict a variety of tones using cross-hatching

Carceri Plate VII - The Drawbridge.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi: Untitled etching (called "The Drawbridge"), plate VII (of 16) from the series The Imaginary Prisons (Le Carceri d'Invenzione), Rome, 1761 edition (reworked from 1745).

Another y7 example, in this case, with a more disorganised style, but very effective.