2013 Faculty Highlights

Appreciating Sculpture
 

About 35 Year 13 Visual Art students have just had the opportunity in July to visit Gibbs Farm which is set in the Kaipara Harbour.

Throughout the extensive site Alan Gibbs, a wealthy businessman, has created a sculpture park. Artworks at the estate include pieces by many international artists including Anish Kapoor, Andy Goldsworthy, and NZ artists such as Neil Dawson and Len Lye to name a few.

It takes about two and a half hours to complete the walk of the park and the students enjoyed the opportunity to get close to well-known works in an impressive setting.

In the first photo Cora Munt, Pam Komatchanan and YeBin Less stand in front of the Amish Kapoor sculpture. The second photo is of students walking towards the Richard Serra sculpture
 

 

Visual Arts Exhibition

Our community was invited to attend this exhibition during the first few days of August.

      

“On the Boundary” - the Senior Visual Art Students and Teachers exhibition, at the Upstairs Gallery was visited by several hundred people and received very positive reviews.

The gallery in New Lynn was impressed by the calibre of works exhibited there and very pleased to see the response from the local community. The gallery will no doubt continue to attract attention as future exhibitions are held there.

We congratulate our students and staff on a very successful event. The images below were taken at the opening function.

Art Students in the City

A group of senior visual arts students welcomed the opportunity to participate in the current Auckland Arts Festival at the Auckland City Art Gallery. The Year 13 and Year 12 students heard four artists talk about their work and artistic practice. The Year 11 students spent the morning viewing artworks in the gallery.   Then it was on to the Auckland Museum Winter gardens to draw from observation. This included drawing the sculptures, architecture and plant life. The three photographs show the students waiting to head in to the lectures and then sketching while at the Winter Gardens at the Auckland Domain.

Year 10 Visual Arts Trip

by Year 10 students Luke Foley-Martin and Freya Rose

On Thursday 20 June, Ms Ankersmit and Ms van Heeswijk and the Year 10 Visual Arts students went on a  fieldtrip to Studio Ceramics and the Auckland Art Gallery as a part of the 1960’s themed work that we have been making over the year.

We started by heading down to the quite massive Studio Ceramics; this turned out to be an amazing part of the day. Our guide very happily toured us around the factory teaching us about the crazy process of making these gorgeous pieces of ceramic ware.

After this, we headed down to the awe inspiring Auckland Art gallery. We spent the rest of our school day learning about the incredible pieces of art by some of the greatest artists in New Zealand and the world.

The day was a true piece of art.
 

The students are shown wearing 3D glasses for one of the exhibits for the 5th Auckland Triennial: Matariki Paparewa at the Auckland Art Gallery

 

Year 9 Visual Artists at Lynfield Cove

Year 9 students in the Visual Arts option classes have been given the challenge of producing a panoramic painting. So recently they have been doing sketches of Lynfield Cove, and more detailed close-up drawings of rocks and plants. Back in class, they will be using their images and experience of the beach to make the panoramic painting.

Digital Media Students Sketch at Museum

 

The current assessment for the 45 Year 11 Digital Media students is observational drawing. Mr Hambridge and Ms Van Heeswijk took their students to the Auckland Museum where they sketched Maori artefacts from the Maori court.

Student Art on The Block

As mentioned in a previous article a group of our Year 9 and 10 students created the art that is receiving considerable acclaim at Blockhouse Bay's newest cafe The Block.

The installation of clay tiles was designed by Art Design teacher Mr Glynn Hambridge who joined with Ms Bev Austin to assist students in creating the work during the 2011 Caring for our Community project.

 

Student Artists in Finals of Art Competition

Four of our art students had work chosen as finalists in the 2013 Auckland Secondary Schools' Art Competition. Although none were eventually placed in the top few we congratulate them on doing so well in the competition which culminated in the Annual Charity Gala Night of the Original Art Sale.

 

The images below show, from left, the work of Carmel Donald and Wern Tje Lim (both Year 12), and Joaquina Rockwell (Year 13). The fourth finalist was Jeeun Koo (Year 11).