The theme for art for trimester 1 was “connections,” in particular, student connections to China. This is a special year for the MS Art Program because the students will be rotating between the three art teachers for each of the three trimesters. Kristi Thornbury teaches painting and printmaking, Sarah Digges teaches sculpture, and I teach drawing. These articles represent the first harvest of this new system. The MS art teachers believe this new media-specific program will have a great impact on the budding artists of SAS. — Jason Maddock

What a relief! The grade 6 repoussage project
By Evelyn Lim and Sarah Digges, Art teachers, Pudong campus

Grade 6 students were encouraged to search for a Chinese image that inspired them to create a repoussage relief sculpture. But what is repoussage, you ask? It’s a metal-tooling technique in which a malleable metal is ornamented by “pushing” from the front and the reverse side to create a design in low relief.

“The biggest challenge in this project was getting the texture right,” Katherine Juszynski said. “I learned that there are so many different ways to create a piece of art, ways that I didn’t even know about. When people think of sculpting, they automatically think of pottery or someone using clay. In this project, I learned that sculpting is unlimited.”

Expressive, abstract … it must be grade 7 art!
By Kristi Thornbury, Art teacher, Pudong campus

Seventh grade art students researched the work of two abstract artists, Jason Stephen and Keith Garrow, as well as various aspects (landscape, festivals, food, industry, and so on) of a chosen Chinese province. The two artists represent two different styles of abstract painting.

Using various tools (such as palette knives, rubber sticks, and brushes) to apply acrylic paint on canvas, the students created large-scale abstract representations of their province through line, shape, space, color, and texture.

Students collected data and images about their own province. They had to figure out a way to represent certain aspects of their province without including anything realistic in their painting. Everything in their paintings had to be “abstract” or non-representational. That means the students had to really simplify the
images and think about using symbolism to communicate an idea. Their language became the visual language of color, shape, texture, line, space, and composition.

“My painting represents Sichuan opera. I did this by portraying the movement and color. I chose to show this province through its opera because it is a very important part of Sichuan culture. The color in my painting reflects the bright and beautiful gowns and decorations in the opera. The colors also represent the mood and the feeling that the performers portray. The big swooshes by the brush mimic the movement in the opera, the way the performers glide across the stage. I chose to make the figures fade from dark to light in order to show the many different personalities and costumes in the opera.” — Grace Pestridge

A matter of perspective, grade 8
By Jason Maddock, Art teacher, Pudong campus

Drawing can be a real challenge to teach. For some reason, students come to art class with the idea that they are not skilled at drawing. A blank piece of paper can cause panic, though to an artist it represents the ultimate freedom to create whatever they wish. Revisiting the enthusiasm of the Renaissance seemed like an engaging way to get the students excited about drawing.

So, we looked at the Camera degli Sposi, painted by Andrea Mantegna between 1465 and 1474. This fresco ceiling painting is famous for its use of the trompe l’oeil technique. What is trompe l’oeil? It is an art technique that uses extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear three-dimensional. Trompe l’oeil literally means “to trick the eye” in French.

Creating a trompe l’oeil ceiling was a unique way for the students to tell a story about their lives in China, and a way to challenge their viewers to look in a new direction — up. Working in pairs, the students were encouraged to put themselves in the position of the viewer, and figure out where the viewer is standing. It was impressive to see how the students solved this artistic puzzle. These drawings were installed as paper ceilings in The Lounge for the SAS community to enjoy. In the act of creating a convincing 3D scene the eight grade students convinced themselves that they did in fact have the ability to draw.

A student’s perspective
By Ian Tan, Grade 8, Pudong campus

The process of creating our trompe l’oeil ceilings was challenging and consuming. In the beginning, we all had to create a theme or concept that connected us to China, and then express that through our art. Using our idea, we sketched a concept and then began to compose a real drawing. Using a grid method, transferring our sketches to a larger paper was a quick and easy process. Using oil pastels, we created real life situations from extreme perspectives: a view in which perspectives were tremendously distorted.

The use of oil pastels as the medium for our trompe l’oeil drawings was the most interesting part of the project. As artists, we were able to see the colors of the oil pastel “leak” into our enlarged sketches, giving them life. Like always, drawing may take a huge amount of time, but the final result is a reward in itself.
In a way, both the process and the final result were my favorite parts of the project.

The most memorable part of the process was learning to create a realistic drawing from a foreshortened perspective. Previously, I was already familiar with drawing in perspective. However, to transfer and enlarge a drawing accurately was a fresh experience. Also, working with a partner not only sped up the process but it also helped me make new friends.