Anyone for Tea?

These two teapots are by Freddie Morris in Form Primary. He has used a mixed media approach for his observational drawing of a teapot. Chalk pastels are blended together to achieve the colour and texture of the teapot and acrylic paint has been applied to the background. He has given us two colour combinations so choose your favourite. We at the Art department favour the green and red combination!

Friday's Photo

Today's photo is by Rosie Agnew in Form IV. It is a dramatic shot in which straight radiating lines are starkly contrasted with the organic nature of the subject matter.

Back Bones

Posted below is an excellent Observational Drawing (including a detail) by Pia Gromotka, Form II. There is a strong sense of line in this drawing and the subtle shading and tone help to create the form of the animal backbone.

Cally Higgins Exhibition@ The Monster Truck Gallery & Studios

Monster Truck Gallery and  Studios  presents The Pre-Partum Document by Cally Higgins, from today, November 26th - 1st December 2009.

Cally Higgins's office installation shows work in progress on the Pre-Partum Document, a series of files opened during a recent pregnancy. These files contain data relating to the pregnancy that was collected, analysed and written up in the deliberately clinical and sterile language of charts, graphs, bullet points, etc. Such language is in direct juxtaposition with the hugh emotional aspect of pregnancy. Despite this clinical approach however, and the use of the formal conventions of the office, the underlying tone of the document remains personal, confessional and often humourous.

Cally Higgins was born in Kilkenny and now lives in Dublin. She is currently studying for a B.A. in Visual Fine Arts Practice at the Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire. Cally is married to Mr. Daron Higgins, Housemaster of Glen, and Mathamatics Teacher here at the College. We at the Art Department wish her all the best in this exhibition of work.

Observational Drawing

We are three days into the Michaelmas Term Exams here at the College. Many of the Art Practical Exams are centered around  'Observational Drawing'.  Observational Drawing is  the   development of  eye/hand   co-ordination and therefore it is essential to DRAW WHAT YOU SEE. The following ELEMENTS and PRINCIPLES of Art and Design must be considered for these exams; Line, Shape, Form, Tone, Colour, Texture, Scale, Proportion, Composition, Balance .

Best of luck to all pupils in all remaining exams!

Kettle    by Lydia Johnson                                              Form I

Paintings from Form I

Both sets in Form I have been working on paintings this term. A range of materials were at the pupils disposal; paint, chalk, pastels, sponges, sticks, etc. Emphasis was placed on the application of  media and the different textural effects that could be achieved. Below (and right) is a selection of the work with some very exciting results.

Peter Quigley       Form I      Paint and Chalk Pastel

Jessica Beresford       Form I       Printed Landscape

John Clarke                Form I                     Painting

Adam Verwijz  Form I   Printed Landscape

Roman Sharykin       Form I        Printed Landscape

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange (May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an influential Americian documentary photographer and photojournalist.  Lange's photographs humanized the tragic consequences of the Great Depression and profoundly influenced the development of documentary photography.

Dorothea Lange 

 On Saturday 21st November, the Irish Times reviewed a new biography of this well known photographer of iconic Americian images. Linda Gordon writes, " DOROTHEA LANGE’S photography has been the subject of several dozen books, but to date there has been only one full-length biography, the seminal A Photographer’s Life , by Milton Meltzer, published in 1978. Written just 13 years after Lange’s death, when most of her friends and family were still available for consultation, Meltzer’s tome was so thorough that no rival emerged for more than three decades.

Linda Gordon’s new account of the photographer’s life, Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits , presents the first challenge to Meltzer’s work, and therefore must answer a crucial question: does it add much to our understanding of Lange and her time?

Dorothea Lange was born in 1895 in the New Jersey suburb of Hoboken. At the age of 22 she set out to travel the world, but got only as far as San Francisco. She established a successful photographic studio where the moneyed families of the area came to have their portraits created.

By the early 1930s Lange’s social conscience drew her away from the comfort of the studio and into the streets and fields to document the human cost of the Great Depression, the refugees from the US Dust Bowl who had arrived in California.

She was one of the first photojournalists, or documentary photographers, and to many of us she remains the greatest. Her images of the United States during the 1930s are the most enduring impressions of the Great Depression. Her image of a destitute mother of seven that she captioned Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936, is one of the world’s most reproduced photographs". Click here to read the rest of this article.

               from the Migrant Mother Series, California 1936