Form I Batik

Using the following themes as a starting point, Form I have developed a design suitable for translation into Batik. The themes from which they had to choose were;

The Jungle
Underwater World
The Circus

The pupils used a wide variety of cracking and veining techniques along with a strong sense of colour to create the finished batiks.

Michael Murphy

Caroline Kavanagh

Freddie Morris

Marina Wright

Form VI Q Set Painting

Form VI Q Set paintings continue to develop from last week. Almost all pupils in the set are finished the planning stage and have begun their final painting.

Miriam Poulton

Acrylic on canvas

Iona Hamilton- Stubber

Acrylic on board

Olivia Plunket

Acrylic on canvas

Coral Reef

Form Primary have been researching the environment of the gravely endangered Coral Reef. Their research has taken two paths; that of reading and drawing (some of which are posted below). The website Reef Relief has information as well as some beautiful pictures all about Coral Reef Ecosystems.

The fragility of the Coral Reefs has also been highlighted in the travelling exhibition; The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. This exhibit helps to explain both the mathematical structures of coral through crochet as well as drawing attention to the environmental crisis surrounding it.

Google Art Project

 Google has launched the Art Project. Art Project is a collaboration with some of the world’s most acclaimed art museums to allow people to discover and view many artworks online in extraordinary detail.

In short, it is just like Google Street view but inside various art museums. You can move around the halls and explore all the artwork in detail.

With the Google Art Project, people anywhere in the world will be able to learn about the history and artists behind a huge number of works by simply clicking a mouse.

Learn more on the youtube link below or go directly to the Google Art Project HERE.

An Báinín

Saturday evening witnessed the first gathering of the new An Báinín club. This club is available to pupils as part of Saturday evening activities. An Báinín is a knitting club and is the brain child of a group of Form V girls. The girls have turned to knitting not just for the sake of learning a craft, but also because they benefit from its therapeutic properties, plus they can create functional and useful pieces of wool craft.

The resurgence of knitting as a pastime is evident in the number of knit classes running all over the country. 'This is Knit', a shop in Dublin City Center, holds classes and stocks all necessary tools and equipment needed to indulge in the craft. They even offer some free knitting patterns to get you started.

Form VI Q Set Painting

The pictures posted today are works in progress by two of the Form VI Art Q Set.  They had free reign in choosing the subject mattter for their paintings. Various materials were also made available to the pupils so that they could choose the media most suited to them. The results look to be very promising indeed!

Iona Hamilton-Stubber

Acrylic on board.

Susannah Cooke

Acrylic on canvas.

Art History Expedition

Last week the Form V and VI visted the National Museum and Newgrange as part of their History of Art studies. Tyrone Langham from Form V has written the following review;

We were then shown some stone and amber beads and ritual jewellery that were incredibly well crafted. One that particularly stood out to me was the head of a hammer that was made from a rare flint that ranged in colour form orange to grey. It was so smooth that our tour guide said it would have taken at least sixty years to rub and polish by hand to make it what it is today. She also said that the average life expectancy was only around forty years so it would have been handed down generations and used in all kinds of rituals and sacrifices to their pagan gods.

Restoration of Harry Clarke Windows At St. Mel's Cathedral

In today's Irish Times there is an article which reminds us of the fine stained glass on view in Churches across the country. Arminta Wallace writes ' Over the past quarter of a century the name of Harry Clarke has become synonymous with stained glass in Ireland. But many of the windows we know as “Harry Clarkes” are actually the work of his younger colleagues at Harry Clarke Studios, among them the windows at St Mel’s in Longford, designed by Richard King'. Read the full article HERE.

Here at the college we have our own fine collection of stained glass in the Chapel. Also on display in the college is a piece by Evie Hone who would have been a contemporary of the designer Richard King.

The room dedicated to Stained Glass at the Hugh Lane Gallery also includes the  The Eve of St Agnes by Harry Clarke which was recently visited by a younger member of the greater college community (as seen below).

Batik by Form II.

Form II have begun work on designing and completing a batik. Working from a chosen theme pupils were required to complete a design suitable for the craft of Batik. The designs must be coloured before the application of wax to the fabric. This will ensure that the correct steps are taken to realise their proposed design.  Posted below are some examples of pupil work  at different stages of the entire Batik process from the design stage right through to the application of wax and dye to the fabric. Batik can be a slow process as it is necessary for the fabric to completely dry out inbetween the application of each colour. Completed Batiks will be posted in the coming weeks. 

Design on Paper by Samual Clarke

Design on Paper with a preliminary sketch on fabric by Marina Pollock

Sophie Lamotte applies wax to fabric to reval her drawing, all the while paying close attention to her initial design

Edward Tottenham's Batik with its first application of wax and dye

Our Ancient Past

Today Form V and Form VI artists will visit the National Museum in Dublin and Newgrange in Co. Meath. There are a number of online resources which pupils can look at to reinforce the experiences from their trip. Suggested sites include the official website for Newgrange, shee-eire, Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art, and the Knowth website.  The unique site at Newgrange and its neighbouring Knowth and Dowth  has proven to be a continuous source of inspiration for Historians and Artists alike. Indeed many of the motifs found at these sites have been incorporated into numerous objets d'art that have come to constitute part of our national identity.