Introduction

The main driving force behind Visual Arts at Patrician Brothers College Blacktown is to nurture and develop the artistic skills of our students, and to create an educational environment in which they can express themselves visually and creatively. Students studying visual arts at the college are exposed to a vast array of artistic mediums ranging from water colour and acrylic painting, ceramics, 3D sculpture, installation, digital art, screen printing and drawing using a variety of media. The visual arts programme incorporates regular excursions to art galleries and the outdoors to enrich the learning experience of the students and saturate their minds with first hand accounts of contemporary and traditional artists and artworks.

Facilities

The Visual Arts department encompasses 3 large classrooms based on an artist’s studio environment, a fully working senior student studio including Macintosh computers, professional scanners and printers, and 2 industrial kilns for firing ceramic works. Photography includes an extensive dark room enabling wet black and white photographs to be developed with 8 photographic enlarges. Students in photography also utilise 13 single reflex cameras and 2 digital cameras which are linked with the computers holding photoshop in the senior studio. Students across visual arts and photography exhibit in the college hall which is specifically equipped to hold art exhibitions.

Art Making

The educational focus in year 7 is to equip the students with the fundamental skills and knowledge to begin their two year compulsory journey through visual arts. The year 7 programme places emphasis on students valuing their individual artistic skills by exposing them to contemporary and abstract artists and artworks. Students explore a variety of mark making through acrylic paintings and blind contour drawings and create polished artworks which are displayed in the school to foster confidence in our young artist.

Year 8 brings an artistic exploration of the ocean theme. Students experiment using mixed media and ink to create contemporary collages of fish to broaden their understanding of what art is and how to be creative with a visual interpretation of a subject. Second semester immerses students in the medium of ceramics based on the ‘under the sea’ theme. Students learn coiling, clay building, scoring and scraffito techniques in order to create visually creative ceramic pots which are then fired in the colleges’ two professional kilns. Students are then taught glazing methods and once their pots are fired a second time, they are left with an impressive piece of ceramic artwork.

Year 9 involves an excursion to Palm beach to engage in the artistic process of plein air painting of the surrounding landscape. Students complete colour studies, watercolours, surface sketches and take photographs which are then further developed into polished watercolour paintings. Students learn how to build, stretch and prime their own canvases which they develop into a major acrylic landscape painting. Second semester engages the students in an exploration of iconography from a contemporary viewpoint. Students use the theme of a pear as a foundation to develop a major artwork with an influence from the great Renaissance masters.

The year 10 programme focuses on broadening the students understanding of art to enable them to think more creatively, to appreciate a wider range of art and to prepare students who are considering the HSC Visual Arts course with the skills they need.

The first semester challenges students with the concept of earth works and site specific sculptures accompanied with installation. Students develop ideas based on the beach landscape following the above guidelines and participate in an excursion to Palm beach to install their sculptures and earth works. Students then manipulate the photographs taken at this excursion into a documentary style artwork in the Visual Arts Process Diary. Second semester involves a thorough and more in depth study of ceramics exploring the theme of all things nautical above and below the sea. Students create a large ceramic vessel which in terms of technique is accomplished and visually sophisticated.

The HSC Visual Arts course engages students in professional art practices and develops their artmaking and theoretical skills to equip them with the means to achieve their best in the HSC. Students are guided by the teacher to develop a personal style and explore and push the boundaries of their artistic skills. Intense studies of contemporary artists and old masters broaden the students knowledge base for both practical and theory components of the course. Students are able to utilise the full extent of the college’s art and photography facilities including digital, ceramic, and fully functional studio areas and equipment. Students also have access to a vast collection of artistic texts and imagery to aid their artistic endeavours.

Students in the HSC culminate their major artworks in a professional graduation art exhibition which includes all major works from photography, which is attended by large audiences and dignitaries. Students get first hand knowledge and experiences of exhibiting artworks.

The college visual arts department has had numerous successes with HSC results and the prestigious Art Express scheme. Various Student’s work have been selected to be exhibited in the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Mitchell State Library as part of Art Express. The college has also enjoyed success with many students being accepted into the National Art School as an additional programme to further their artistic development at a tertiary institution during the HSC.

Art History & Criticism

From year 7 to year 12 students studying art at the college engage with an in depth study of artists and artworks on a theoretical basis.Students study a vast array of artists ranging from the accomplished techniques of the Renaissance masters to the ground braking concepts of contemporary artists. Students study the concepts of the frames and the conceptual framework consistently from 7 to 12 and become increasingly familiar with its components as well as it’s application for analysing artistic practice and artworks.

Students learning in the theoretical component of the visual arts course is enriched through audio visual resources, colour slides, posters, vast text based resources and first hand accounts of artists and their works through excursions to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Students have access to state of the art computers and digital resources which aid their research for current information and images of artists.